This Podcast is brought to you by the Energy Education Foundation for more information on the foundation and its mission visit: energyeducation.org

This Podcast is brought to you by the Energy Education Foundation for more information on the foundation and its mission visit: energyeducation.org

Don Vardeman championed successive applications of the production spar technology for deepwater development, and by his leadership in deepwater mega projects has provided an important example for Project Management in the offshore oil & gas industry. His untiring efforts in technology, academic and business societies, as well as his willingness to mentor colleagues and other young professionals have advanced the entire industry. Don successfully led Oryx Energy’s deepwater group to design, install, and operate the industry’s first production spar—named Neptune—in 1996 at Viosca Knoll 826. His team and that project revolutionized the offshore industry by developing an economical application for producing reserves in deepwater.

The Glomar Challenger was one of the most important deep sea drilling ships ever built, not simply because of its influence on the modern-day drill ship technology for the offshore industry, but in a broader sense, it changed the way we understood Earth’s dynamic geological and climate history. The exploration work on the Challenger over 15 years of subsurface coring in the deep oceans and in the polar regions, led to our understanding of plate tectonics and what caused climatic events in the past, such as the ice ages and periods of global warming. The success of the Glomar Challenger is a great example of how industry innovation, matched with cutting edge science and engineering, can solve problems and advance civilization through exploration. Curtis Crooke, who was inducted into the OEC Offshore Hall of Fame in 2001, helped design this famous Glomar Challenger, and spent his career with Global Marine, one of the pioneering firms in drill ship technology that paved the way for deep water exploration in the second half of the 20th century.