Vasile Mogos: CDI Oilfield Services positioning as a global top supplier

Vasile Mogos is General Manager of CDI Oilfield Services, subsidiary of Synergy Energy Holdings LLC owned by B-29 Investments, Gainesville, TX and Crestview Partners, NY. He graduated from Petroleum and Gas University of Ploiesti in 1991. He started his career in the oil and gas industry with OMV Petrom, where he first worked as WO & Production Specialist Petroleum Engineer (1991-1998) and later on as Production Sector Manager (1998-2007). Since September 2007, he joined CDI team where he held various petroleum engineering and development management positions – District Operations Manager, Operational Manager, Europe Operational Manager. Having a background in Engineering and coupled with MBA, in November 2015 he took over the position of General Manager of the company.

 

You have more than 25 years of experience in the oil & gas industry in Romania managing Operations, Sales, Procurement, Personnel, Financial Data. How do you see the Romanian and regional O&G markets?

It is worth mentioning here that the Romanian oil and gas industry has marked this year 160 years since its founding. We are talking about a mature market with a mix of fields produced by stimulation methods, but we are also talking about discoveries of new deposits that give us a lot of hope… The services and products market associated with oil production is constantly developing and reinventing itself from one cycle to another. The 160 years tradition either in preparing specialists or in manufacturing machinery and equipment for the petroleum industry is the platform on which many companies have built their development.
Regional markets are largely the results of to the same cycle I’ve talked about earlier. Following the visits, presentations and contracts we run at international level, we are convinced that, not only in Romania but also globally, the companies are re-calibrating their resources and strategies for a longer and more tumultuous path of this cycle. For us, each oil-pumping well is first and foremost an opportunity to put our expertise, products and services at the operator’s disposal and to build together a sustainable business model.

 

For the last ten years you have worked with CDI – a period of continuous downhole innovation. As you’ve just celebrated this, what milestones has the company crossed over these years?

Your question places me relentlessly in this short yet so dense history of our company. There have been so many stages and I will certainly not be able to mention them all:

• April 2007: the first well completed by CDI for the OMV Petrom Roll-Out project; an over 760 wells completion project which was actually the binder that formed and welded our team of specialists;
• October 2007: the first repair and assembly center for pumps and equipment in Romania, equipped and operated at the highest level of oil and gas industry’s international standards;
• November 2009 – June 2010: the takeover of 23 pump shop centers from our OMV Petrom partner under the contract, revamping and equipping the whole network at international standards level; the training of 278 employees to be able to operate according to the company’s quality procedures towards reaching the assumed performance;
• April 2014: the first well completed with fiberglass rods; this project has opened the way for using this technology for the first time in the oil fields in Romania;
• November 2015: inaugurating the COE (CentrCenter of Excellence) as a dedicated platform for production, development, innovation, preparation, storage, processing and integration of data for the clients;
• August 2017: the 10th anniversary of day by day written history, by a wonderful team, with support from exceptional partners.

 

What are your current job responsibilities and the main goals to pursue business development?

CDI is in a continuous process of reinvention and repositioning. We pay special attention to developing the product range and to increase the excellence of our services. We pursue on a firm approach of the international markets where we endeavor to replicate the business model we are currently running in Romania.

 

Last year, CDI has joined the Sinergy Group – a leading provider of artificial lift products and services. What are the main benefits and effects of this acquisition for your company and the industry?

The CDI takeover by Sinergy Group and Crestview Partners came as a confirmation of the generous development potential our company has. Thus, the business model, the wonderful team and the international expertise have propelled our company in the position to develop global business. The presence and visibility of our company has grown over the past years, the same as the volume of international business.

 

What do you consider to be the major stimulators in the oilfield services market? What about the impediments hampering growth?

The oil and gas services market is continually looking for new solutions and technologies to offset either the inherent constraints related to brown field production of oil wells which are close to the economic limit or the growing difficulties generated by the new oil reservoirs with high degree of operational complexity. We are talking here about horizontal wells or high depth reservoirs with severe conditions.
I would however say that the difficulties the operator faces are incidentally commensurable with the growth and development opportunities of a company that provides solutions to the industry.

 

How does the financial pressure on the oil and gas sector impact the work relationship between operators and suppliers?

The conditions generated by the fall in oil prices have led directly to a partnership approach between the two. The working philosophy of our team has always been teamworking with our partners’ specialists. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our OMV Petrom partner for having us accepted to become part of their great family.

 

Attracting new committed partners often requires an innovative business development strategy. Which are the company’s programs with regard to this issue?

Behind the strategies we are developing on the local and international markets, ranks first and foremost the respect for our partners and competitors. We are developing and we are under the continuous assessment of an international network of industry agencies and companies that can assimilate our business model. We qualify such network once we are certain there is a deep understanding of the added value our products and services can bring to the operator. We are increasingly more present on the market in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, Latin America.

 

In 2015, CDI Oilfield Services has opened its Center of Excellence. What are the Center’s operational highlights so far?

Our Center of Excellence is a platform with functionalities, I would say, unique in this region whereby the center offers the following facilities:

• It manages and distributes in the 14 operational centers an inventory capable of sustaining the delivery of downhole pumps or equipment to any of the over 7,000 wells in less than 3 hours from receiving an order;
• It represents a platform for presenting the business model, new technologies, training, either for our partners’ staff or for the Romanian and foreign students from the Petroleum and Gas University (UPG);
• It hosts a software optimization platform for the pumping systems connected to all the other 13 service centers being also connected through an interface to our partners’ technical data systems.

 

What would be the top three priorities for CDI Oilfield Services during the coming period? Where would you see the best opportunity for your company in the energy sector over the coming years?

Our priorities take always into account our partners’ needs and the goals we aim at together are closely connected to the market evolution. These are:

• The continuous increase of our partners’ satisfaction thorough actions towards a continuous optimization of the total cost of ownership of equipment within our scope of supply whilst keeping up with the confirmed, increasingly higher, performances;
• The development, implementation and monitoring of the new technologies’ performances;
• The company’s positioning as a leading provider of equipment and services.