Mark A. Childers is an engineer, manager, inventor and pioneer in the development of offshore drilling and production. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he was raised in Arlington, Virginia. After high school graduation, he went to Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now Va. Tech). A member of the Corps of Cadets for two years, he co-opted through school, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1964. Via a National Science Foundation (NSF) scholarship, he then earned a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1965. He joined Humble Oil & Refining Co. (now ExxonMobil) as an engineer in the offshore oil and gas business in New Orleans, Louisiana upon graduation from college. At that time the offshore oil and gas industry was only 12 years old, but developing rapidly. Humble provided an outstanding training ground via assignments at the division level, headquarters and at its research center (Esso Production Research Co.). An abundance of field work and classroom instruction laid the groundwork for his engineering skills, allowing him to develop wellbore cementing techniques, innovative workover units and floating drilling technology. This latter group included deepwater spread mooring systems, floating drilling well techniques and hardware, marine riser systems, and Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) designs and operations. He holds 12 domestic and international patents covering mooring hardware, tubular handling concepts, cementing of oil wells, submersible rig station keeping via suction piles, buoyant towers and subsea BOP control.
Industry Pioneers
