Paul Mosvold named 2022 IADC Contractor of the Year
By Stephen Whitfield, Associate Editor
Paul Mosvold, President and COO of Scandrill, has been named 2022 IADC Contractor of the Year. The annual award, which was established in 1988 to recognize an individual drilling contractor’s outstanding lifetime achievement in technical innovation, safety and economic efficiency within the drilling industry, is the only industry award reserved exclusively for drilling contractors.
“I’m deeply honored to be presented with this award,” Mr Mosvold said at the 2022 IADC Annual General Meeting in New Orleans, La., on 4 November. “I am proud of the fact that I’m still standing here” he added, noting how Scandrill has overcome extremely difficult market conditions over the past few years. The company’s active rig count has already bounced back to 16 this year and is expected to rise to 17 by the end of the year. That compares with just five in 2020 and 22 back in 2019.
A member of IADC’s Executive Committee and North America Onshore Advisory Panel, Mr Mosvold was appointed to his current position at Scandrill in 2014. He has spent much of his professional career with the company, starting in 1982 when he worked as a roustabout and roughneck on a Scandrill barge rig prior to attending Houston Baptist University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1988.
Following graduation, Mr Mosvold worked primarily in shipping, including a stint as Operations Manager at Palmer Navigation, an independent shipping company, where he traveled extensively in the Middle East, India and South America. He returned to Scandrill in 1997 as Marketing Manager and later became VP of Health, Safety and Environment before taking over in his current role with the company.
In his acceptance speech at the Annual General Meeting, Mr Mosvold credited Scandrill management and staff for the company’s success in the midst of recent downturns. In particular, he noted the efforts of the company’s executive management team – Senior VP Torrey Mosvold, Senior VP of Operations Neil Pierce and VP of Finance Jeff Willis – in putting together a strong team of employees.
Mr Mosvold also noted the strength of Scandrill’s relationships with its vendors, as well as its productive, positive culture.
“I always say that you have a choice of where you want to work, and so often, our customers pick up the phone and make a point about working with our rigs and working with our guys because they enjoy working with them. That’s pretty cool,” he said.
