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Interview with Scientific Drillings new Global Marketing Director Jayme Sperring

Interview with Scientific Drillings new Global Marketing Director Jayme Sperring Scientific Drilling showcases its drilling technology at its Applied Technology Center, Paso Robles, California (source: SDI)
Alexander Richter 15 May 2012

The newly appointed global marketing and sales director for Scientific Drilling International, Jayme Sperring, provided an insight into how the company is position itself for growth in the global geothermal energy market.

Scientific Drilling International announced in April that it has named Jayme Sperring its new Director for Global Sales and Marketing. Based out of the company’s headquarter in Houston, Texas he will manage the company’s global directional drilling and production logging sales team and marketing department.

Sperring joins Scientific Drilling from National Oilwell Varco (NOV), a manufacturer of drilling, fishing and completion downhole technology serving the upstream oil and gas industry. Sperring joined the organization in 2005 and has held various leadership positions within the downhole division of NOV since 2007.

The main focus of Scientific Drilling clearly is on the oil and gas business, but SDI has also worked and serviced the geothermal sector, so in congratulating Jayme Sperring to his new position, I thought it would be interesting to ask him a few questions on the geothermal ambitions going forward.

How important do you believe will be the geothermal energy market for SDI going forward?  

We see the geothermal industry growing from 11GW to roughly 18 GW within the next six years. This growth will require rampant increased drilling activity which will drive demand for specialty drilling services such as directional and production logging. This demand expansion is very important to our diversified energy portfolio and in effort to avoid playing victim to the cyclical nature of the O&G market, Geothermal serves as a strategic element to our long term stability.  Scientific Drilling has been involved in the geothermal industry for over 30 years. We recognize the importance of clean, base-load, renewable power and want to support the growth of the industry in any way possible.

For any industrial development, environmental impact is a key topic of concern, so directional drilling is seen as a way of solving some of those concerns. E.g. in Japan, where the government mentions that directional drilling could allow geothermal development in or close to the national parks.

Directional drilling not only benefits the customer by reaching oil, gas, or geothermal reservoirs with limited surface areas, but it minimizes environmental degradation.  Japan has a unique situation where estimates state 80% of the undeveloped geothermal resource is within national park boundaries. Utilizing directional drilling expertise, Japan will enable well construction on the outskirts of their national parks, minimizing drilling pad surface locations while maximizing the capture of the geothermal resource.

What do you see as key markets for Scientific Drilling in its geothermal activities? 

Scientific Drilling recognizes Latin America, Asia Pacific, East Africa and Continental Europe as our key markets for incremental growth in geothermal (specifically Chile, Peru, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya and Turkey). We are aggressively establishing ourselves in Latin America through joint venture allinaces and are expanding our business development efforts in Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa as we speak.

There is a strong competition among other oil drilling and service firms. Where do you see the strengths of Scientific Drilling in particular for serving the geothermal market?  

Scientific Drilling has traditionally differentiated itself by its innovative technology, specifically our gyroscopic technology which is the most accurate and durable in the industry. However, we recognize the rapid commoditization of product offerings and the growing challenge of technology differentiation.  That said, Scientific Drilling will be recognized for a customer experience that makes it easy to do business, delivering customer service and solutions to our customer’s drilling challenges. As an agile, independently operated service company, Scientific Drilling is able to capitalize on this quickly and separate from the competition.

I would like to thank Jayme for taking the time and wish him all the best in his new position.