Executive Profile: Chris Beckett, CEO, Pacific Drilling

by Kathy A. Smith

Being involved in the first-ever commercialization process for deep-sea dual gradient drilling is, perhaps, fitting for Chris Beckett, CEO of Pacific Drilling's Houston, Texas corporate office, whose 20-year career in the oil and gas industry began when he was an eager young seismologist.

He quipped, “The seismologist job title in a seismic company is kind of a catch-all for anything and everything that needs to be done that isn’t somebody else’s job.”

At age 22, he relished the first time he was sent out on his own with a 42-man seismic crew in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province where “it felt like a boy’s-own adventure stuff and the first time to really feel total responsibility and accountability for what we delivered.”

During this time, he worked for Seismograph Service Ltd. subsequently acquired by Schlumberger Limited in the early 90s where he spent 12 years honing his international management skills. As part of a unique project called Transition 2000, he spearheaded acquisition of the largest onshore seismic survey that has ever been completed in the U.S.

After leaving Schlumberger in 2001, he pursued an MBA, which eventually lead him to become a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company management consulting company. “I had a great opportunity at McKinsey to study the way in which one of the major oil companies in the U.S. was using its refining assets and look for ways to help them maximize their returns from changes in regulations.”

It wasn’t long before Transocean, Ltd. came calling, where, as Director of business development and corporate planning, he was responsible for “things that naturally didn‘t fit in other people‘s pockets.”

Yearning for a larger role in a smaller company, he co-founded Pacific Drilling in 2008. Now, dual gradient drilling technology, championed by Chevron and which first appeared on the scene 12 years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, is gaining renewed interest from deep-sea drilling companies. And Pacific Drilling’s Pacific Santa Ana, one of the company’s seven technically-advanced drillships will be the first rig in the industry to commercialize the process. Already at work in the Gulf of Mexico, she is on a five-year contract for Chevron, supporting their Gulf-wide development efforts.

Beckett explains traditional drilling methodology has been modified to remove the effect of mud weight from the riser, but the benefits of removing that head pressure of mud in the riser were much smaller when drilling in shallow water and shallow wells.

“Now much of the industry is drilling much deeper wells, operating in deeper water, and dealing with reservoirs with greater pressure, so when you add the fact that the cost of operations has gone up substantially in the last 10 years, the benefits you gain from better pressure control down hole will offset the incremental cost in doing it.”

He’s convinced it has the potential to be a game-changer. “It’s not going to replace or revolutionize drilling everywhere in the world, but I think the very deep Gulf of Mexico sub-salt environment and quite possibly the pre-salt environment in Brazil and West Africa are the areas where it can have the most impact.”

The other big focus, he says, is recognizing that “we have to find smarter ways to be able to use the knowledge and expertise that exists in the industry across the full spectrum, as many experts will be retiring soon or moving out of the field to the shore. “We also need to find ways to improve our activity monitoring and remote monitoring of what’s happening offshore from onshore locations so we can spread that knowledge and experience across a broader segment of the fleet rather than just the rig that an individual is sitting on.”

Hiring his ace team of nearly 1000 employees, securing the first contract with Chevron and taking the company public last November have all been highlights of his time with Pacific Drilling. “I have to recognize my team and the investors as being equally important in the success of what we’ve developed so far.”

When asked if being Pacific Drilling’s CEO means he’s essentially responsible for everything that doesn’t fit into someone else’s pocket, he added with a smile, “Pretty much, I guess.”

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Kathy A. Smith is based in Victoria, BC and is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive.