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Tuboscope exec knows his industry from inside out.

Article Excerpt
Dietmar Neidhardt is a well-schooled, well-traveled pipeline executive who knows the business from both sides of the tracks. The articulate, good-humored German-born pipeliner has probably traveled through more countries than most of us could ever name.

Despite his many years in the industry, the multilingual Neidhardt seems as fascinated today by the oil and gas business as when he began his career. The VP and General Manager of Tuboscope Pipeline Services offers a big-picture view of the industry and some of its most challenging issues.

P&GJ: How did you get into the energy industry?

Neidhardt: Unbeknown to me, my career in the energy business started when I failed class in elementary school. For a family of academics, that was unacceptable. As a consequence I ended up in a boarding school. Besides the traditional education, the school featured training in metallurgy. At the same time, I became fascinated with the impact oil and gas had on virtually every aspect of our lives as well as the adventure in exploring for it. It was only a question of time when I would end up at the Mining University of Leoben (Austria) wanting to build oil drilling rigs and search for the "black gold." I studied petroleum engineering first as my existing degree would allow me later to revert back to metallurgy.

Following graduation, I managed offshore drilling platforms for Shell International. After nine years in the E&P department, I decided to further my career and joined Pool, a drilling company in Houston. Little did I know that the bottom would soon fall out of the industry with three out of four of my colleagues losing their jobs by the end of 1986. My interest in getting to know the "other side of the table" was replaced with a simple...

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