Proserv Offshore, Inc.

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Houston is home to almost a third of the nation’s publicly traded energy exploration and production firms. Many of these corporations rely on Proserv Offshore, Inc. to provide products and services for technically challenging deep-water oil and gas drilling projects. When a company like GE secures financing through the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank to supply technology for a global deep water drilling project, it is Proserv that is one of the businesses that is called upon to help execute the order.

Proserv is an award-winning company that builds control valves for blow-out preventers and supplies expert personnel for drilling projects, employing approximately 500 engineers and technicians in Houston and Louisiana. These highly-trained engineers and technicians are important contributors not only to the energy projects they work on, but also to the local businesses they support in their neighborhoods and communities.

Steve Lykins, President, Proserv North and South America has two messages when it comes to the Ex-Im Bank. The first is about the need for certainty. Proserv and Proserv’s customers works on large, multi-year projects, so the current approach in Washington of reauthorizing the Bank for only a few months or a year at a time creates challenges for Proserv’s business. “We need certainty,” says Steve. “The projects we work on are on multi-year timelines. So if there is no assurance that financing will be in place for the duration of a project, companies will be hesitant to move forward. They may even look to other markets abroad where the financing is more reliable.”

The second message has to do with a misconception some people have about the Ex-Im Bank. “I’ve heard people say the Ex-Im Bank is welfare for big corporations,” Steve says. “Aside from that being fundamentally incorrect, people should know that the benefits of the projects the bank finances trickle down through the supply chain to companies like mine. You have all these smaller and mid-size companies in Houston that rely on the bank continuing to operate because they are the ones that support the projects the bank finances.” Those are the messages Steve wants to tell Congress when he flies to Washington at the end of February.