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Pro? le Faces of the Industry Faces of the Industry Faces of the Industry

By Kelli Lauletta his month’s Faces of the to success is picking a sector

T

Industry tells the career and becoming the best you story of Jim Britton, CEO of can be in that space. You can’t

Featuring the best of

Deepwater Corrosion Services, be all things to all people. I who knows a thing or two chose the offshore industry as

ALL THE ROCKSTARS about weathering a down- my focus and we don’t even turn in oil prices. Born in the look at onshore work–we refer

UK, but rightfully called an it out. Another key to suc- “honorary Texan,” Jim had ceeding as an entrepreneur is the hutzpah to start up an a drive to put the hours in. If oil and gas service company you aren’t prepared to do that, in Houston during the rough you have a slim chance of ride of the 1980’s. He ? gured success. New entrepreneurs out how to hedge his bets by may also spring up during

EXPLORERS diversifying his business to this downturn. I’ve found that navigate successfully through a lot of people aren’t “volun-

AND GAMECHANGERS booms and busts. He and his teer” entrepreneurs. They get wife grew the business from downsized and take a chance

Driving our Industry, today.

a spare bedroom start up to on starting their own busi- a global multi-million dollar ness. This might be a good corrosion and asset integrity opportunity for some to take company. their specialty and ? nd a

OilOnline recently had an were being removed than put way up the ranks. In 1982, I niche in the market. opportunity to visit Jim in his in. So we got into maintenance got an opportunity to transfer

Do you have a career high

Houston of? ce. Jim’s face lit up and integrity management, to Houston.

or peak you’d like to share?

when he discussed his entry which was somewhat shielded

What led to starting your One thing that really sticks out into this business, why he from the budgets cuts. We own company?

is when I developed a product focuses only on offshore proj- developed a risk-based inspec-

I was at a juncture in my career to address a pipe support ects, his key advice on “lean tion procedure and Exxon was as the company I worked for issue, our ? rst purchase order times” asset integrity strategies, the ? rst company to give us a went through some restructur- was from Exxon. That was and why he is upbeat about the shot. That chapter in our busi- ing and ownership changes. the ? rst time we ever earned future of the industry. ness gave us a unique perspec-

I either had to go back to the money from a product we tive in understanding the real

Tell us your story–how did

UK or ? nd someone to hire me developed in-house. That was problems with asset integrity. you break into oil and gas?

in Houston. The later wasn’t a light bulb moment. It wasn’t

We used that knowledge to

My career began in the UK easy because of my immigra- a very big purchase order, but develop a solution called I-Rod when the North Sea was com- tion status at the time. The it really got the ? re started. to target localized corrosion ing online. I was a technician only thing I could do was go damage. This particular solu-

Have you seen a slowdown in a metallurgical laboratory into business for myself. So in tion really fueled our expan- in the number of projects that made welding electrodes, 1986, my wife and I formed sion into manufacturing, as at your company?

which was actually a pretty Deepwater Corrosion Services we went from a few thousand boring undertaking. I got in a spare bedroom with no We have seen some slowdown in sales to over $10 million into oil and gas when the UK cash and just a credit card we and we are getting calls from in sales last year on that one switched from manufactured had reserve on. It was tough our customers looking for rate product alone. gas to natural gas. It was but things worked out. You reductions and discounts. We

What does it take to be a exciting time for me when I have to keep the faith. are all in this together, so I successful entrepreneur?

We wanted to focus on man- started as a ? eld technician have instructed my salesforce ufacturing, however, the price focused on pipeline projects I’m an engineer by discipline to work with those accounts of oil was around US$12-$13/ and ended up working all over with no formal business train- to see how we can share the bbl then. There was no new the world. I slowly went from ing. I grew into this role by pain. Being hard-nosed on construction as more platforms ? eld to of? ce and worked my building a company. One key pricing is not where you need

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