2012

Sidney Hynes

Noia, the Newfoundland & Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association, announced today that Captain Sidney J. Hynes has been named recipient of its 2012 Outstanding Contribution Award.  Captain Hynes was described as a true pioneer in the development and growth of the offshore industry in our province.  

• News Release
• Video

2011

Stephen Henley

Noia’s 2011 Outstanding Contribution Award has been awarded to a business leader and volunteer who has, for over two decades, contributed to the growth of the local supply and service sector and to the emergence of Noia as an independent and influential association.

• News Release
• Video

2010

Jim Wright

Noia’s 2010 Outstanding Contribution Award has been awarded, posthumously, to a teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, and volunteer who devoted 40 years of his life to the oil & gas industry in Newfoundland & Labrador, Dr. James Wright.

• News Release & Video

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2009

Moya Cahill

Moya Cahill has played a significant role in the development of the provinces' oil & gas industry and has been a key contributor to developing the core qualities for which this region is recognized globally. Throughout her career, she has shared a vision for what the local community could bring to industry, and what the industry could bring to East Coast Canada. Her commitment, her drive, and her innovation has been a key cog in the wheel that has spurred our growth and success.

• News Release & Video

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2008

Dave Keating

Mr. Keating is one of Newfoundland & Labrador’s petroleum pioneers. His offshore drilling career, spanning more than 30 years, has taken him from his home province to the North Sea, particularly Norway. He gained important knowledge and skills that he then brought back with him when he came to work in the Newfoundland & Labrador offshore industry. He undertook the role of Canada area manager with Transocean in the early nineties, and he also occupied that position from 2000 until his recent retirement in 2008.

• News Release

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2007

Michael Enachescu

Dr. Enachescu has been a key player in petroleum exploration and development in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador for more than two decades. As a leading member of Husky's exploration team from 1984 to 2003, he was involved in a number of discoveries (including both White Rose and Terra Nova). His detailed geological map of the Grand Banks is the standard reference for both industry and government, and the starting point for any company considering acquiring lands or drilling offshore in the area.

• News Release

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2006

Steve Millan

A geologist by profession, Mr. Steve Millan’s involvement in the industry in Newfoundland began in 1969. His involvement includes service in the private, public, and academic sectors.

For over 35 years, Mr. Millan has played an integral role in the oil & gas industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. He took a lead role in the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore resource management team and was a key participant in the development of the technical, legislative, policy, and strategic tools required for the efficient and beneficial development of the offshore.

• News Release

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2005

Bernard Collins

Mr. Bernard Collins is an international trade expert who consults with industry leaders across Canada and around the world to develop trade and logistics solutions for East Coast Canada oil & gas operations. As a result of his skill and his company's reputation for excellence, Mr. Collins is internationally recognized as an expert in his field with a specialization in the offshore industry.

• News Release

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2004

Fredrick J. Cahill

Fred Cahill began his career as an Electrical Design Engineer with BFL Consultants Limited. In 1983, he left BFL to become an estimator/ project manager with his father’s company, G.J. Cahill & Company Limited. In 1987 he progressed to Vice-President, and became President in 1989. Mr. Cahill also brought together five local companies to form the Newfoundland Service Alliance - who all play an important role in the offshore oil & gas industry. Mr. Cahill currently serves on the Board of Directors of the General Hospital Health Foundation.

• News Release

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25th Anniversary

Wes Abel

Wes Abel began his career with Mobil Oil in 1955 as a maintenance roustabout and battery operator and later became an engineer, gaining experience with the company in Calgary, Sable Island, the Gulf of Mexico, and the North Sea where he served as platform manager and project manager for the Statfjord A and B projects. In 1983, Mr. Abel returned to Eastern Canada from Norway as Mobil’s East Coast Engineering Manager, and was instrumental in completing negotiations and project sanction for the Hibernia project. In 1993, he returned to Calgary as Mobils Senior Advisor for Frontier Development until his retirement in 1996. He is now mentor and Chairman of the Board of AMI Offshore.

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John Crosbie, P.C., O.C., Q.C.


In over 28 years of political life at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, John Carnell Crosbie has had a broad and significant impact on the people and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Crosbie was instrumental in helping put in place many of the building blocks for the local oil & gas industry. As a Member of Parliament and the province’s senior representative in the federal cabinet during the 1980s, he helped gain government support for shared management of our natural resources, an agreement that would become known as the Atlantic Accord, and later helped facilitate the federal assistance and guarantees that helped move Newfoundland and Labrador’s Hibernia project from concept to reality.

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Dr. J.I. (Jack) Clark, O.C.


Dr. Jack Clark has been involved in major civil engineering and pipeline projects onshore and offshore since 1957. As President of C-CORE from 1984-1997, he helped grow the corporation’s prominence and stature as a world-class research organization in Cold Ocean Resources Engineering. During the downturn in offshore activities in the 1980s he diversified C-CORE operations to include research on pipelines, in mining and space, concentrating on task environment works that built on C-CORE’s core strengths. As President of J.I. Clark and Associates, Dr. Clark continues to provide his expertise to C-CORE and the industry as an engineering consultant.

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Fraser Edison

The President and CEO of ConPro Group Limited, Fraser Edison has played key roles in both the Hibernia and Terra Nova projects. Mr. Edison and his partners purchased Concrete Products in 1982 and later went on to form ConPro Group. In 1983, Mr. Edison and his partners formed a joint venture with Doris Engineering of Paris, France under the name Newfoundland Offshore Development Corporation Limited (NODECO), which was subsequently awarded the contract to construct the Gravity Base Concrete Structure for Hibernia. Doris ConPro is also well known internationally for its involvement as a member of the Terra Nova Alliance, providing construction, management, and support to the joint venture of international oil companies developing Newfoundland and Labrador’s second offshore oil project.

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Ruth Graham

Born in English Harbour West, Fortune Bay, and raised in Marystown on the Burin Peninsula, Ruth Graham worked with the College of Fisheries, NORDCO, Husky Bow Valley, and GVA Canada, a Swedish Company, before joining the Newfoundland Ocean Industries Association in 1989 as Executive Director. In ten years with Noia, Ms. Graham grew to know and assist petroleum companies throughout the Atlantic region. She became a key player in NOIA’s efforts to educate and enhance the local oil and gas industry, coordinating numerous trade missions, educational conferences and seminars, and business development sessions. She also participated in numerous national and international trade shows and missions. Ms. Graham is now Industry Affairs Advisor, Atlantic and Eastern Canada with Schlumberger Canada Ltd.

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Gregory Lever

Greg Lever’s involvement with the oil & gas industry in Eastern Canada stretches back to the 1970s. Mr. Lever was involved in early exploration on the East Coast with both Shell Canada and Petro-Canada and was a member of the team that drilled the Terra Nova K-08 discovery well. As a drilling engineer with Texaco-Shell program, he was part of the team when the Discoverer Seven Seas drilling vessel set water depth and Canadian well depth records while drilling the Texaco-Shell Blue H-28 well. In 1979, Mr. Lever set up and managed Petro-Canada’s first Offshore Drilling Operations office in St. John’s and went on to manage the company’s offshore exploration and drilling off Newfoundland and Labrador, later becoming General Manager for the province, leading the Terra Nova project through the regulatory approval process and project sanction. He now serves as Technical Services Manager for Terra Nova.

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Cabot Martin

Originally from Port aux Basques, Mr. Martin served as Legal Advisor to the Minister of Mines and Energy from 1972 to 1979 and as Senior Policy Advisor to the Premier from 1979 to 1985. He was widely applauded as one of the key negotiators of the 1985 Atlantic Accord, which set out joint federal-provincial jurisdiction of offshore oil and gas resources. Mr. Martin was later a key advisor and government lawyer during negotiations on the Hibernia project. In 1991, Mr. Martin co-founded Vinland Petroleum Inc., the first Newfoundland and Labrador based oil and gas exploration company which participated in the drilling of three onshore exploration wells. In 1998, Mr. Martin founded Deer Lake Oil and Gas Inc. and is currently President and CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of the company.

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Fred Murrin

As a senior civil servant in the department of Industry, Trade and Rural Development, Fred Murrin helped play a key role in setting the foundations for growth in the oil and gas sector. Mr. Murrin joined the provincial government in 1980 following a career with the Federal Business Development Bank, and for more than 20 years provided a stable focus to the industry departments of successive provincial governments. Mr. Murrin was actively involved in negotiations for projects including Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose, with responsibility for industrial and employment benefits. He was also central to the establishment of the Bull Arm Site Corporation and participated in numerous overseas trade missions. Mr. Murrin recently joined J.D Irving Limited as General Manager Business Development.

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Oil & gas industry employees
 (Wayne Walters accepting)

The oil & gas industry in this province would be nothing today without the many people who worked so hard in countless roles and a variety of locations, to make it happen. From the early pioneers who discovered and delineated our offshore reserves, to the workers who fabricated and assembled the assets that now reside offshore, to the people who today are supporting production operations, onshore and offshore, we owe them all a debt of gratitude. Wayne Walters, an industry veteran who now works with the Terra Nova project, will accept an award on behalf of all industry workers. Wayne entered the oil & gas industry in 1978 as a geologist with Gulf Canada in Calgary, Alberta. Since that time, Wayne has held positions such as operations geologist and drilling supervisor for Mobil Oil Canada, as well as drilling and well service supervisor for projects and companies such as PanCanadian, Hibernia, and currently Petro-Canada. Wayne exemplifies the pioneering spirit, tenacity and capability of Eastern Canada’s offshore workforce.

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The Honourable A. Brian Peckford. P.C., LLD.

As Minister of Mines and Energy and later Premier, A. Brian Peckford helped provide the foundations for offshore oil & gas development in Newfoundland and Labrador including: advancing Newfoundland and Labrador's case for jurisdiction, leading talks in the development of the Province's own regulations, leading negotiations that led to the Atlantic Accord, and leading negotiations that led to the Hibernia Statement of Principles. Since retiring from provincial politics, Mr. Peckford has provided consulting services to governments and businesses nationally and internationally and has been involved, through several public companies, in resource projects in North and South America. Presently, Mr. Peckford is Chairman of The Pacific Offshore Energy Group, a British Columbia non-profit group that is promoting the responsible development of Pacific offshore oil & gas resources.

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Harvey Smith


Originally from Sackville, New Brunswick, Harvey Smith began his career with Mobil Oil in 1962, the same year Mobil and its partners applied for the Hibernia offshore acreage. He was involved with the appraisal drilling of the Hibernia field from 1982 to 1984, and was also involved in early exploration efforts off Nova Scotia including at Sable Island. He became President of the Hibernia Management and Development Company in October 1996, guiding the project through key milestones including mating and tow-out, and finally to first oil in November 1997, a landmark event which made Newfoundland and Labrador an oil producing province. Mr. Smith retired from Mobil Oil in April 2000, and now resides in Sequim, Washington.

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Rob Strong

Rob Strong became involved in the offshore oil industry in 1980 with D.A.C.Group, a joint venture of Davie Shipbuilding, Aker Engineering, and Crosbie Offshore Services Limited, established to engineer and construct a semi-submersible for Eastern Canadian waters. Mr. Strong later joined Crosbie Offshore and Pennecon Limited. At Pennecon, he was instrumental in helping establish several significant joint ventures including Canship-Ugland, which operates the East Coast tanker fleet. He went on to form CONPRO Services with the partners of CONPRO Group. Mr. Strong has served as President of NOIA and a member of NOIAs Board of Directors. As President of the St. John's Oilfield Technology Society, he was instrumental in the fundraising, design, and building of the Ocean Ranger Memorial at the Confederation Building.

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Partnership Awards

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)


Since ACOA’s inception in June 1987, ACOA and NOIA have acted in partnership to cultivate opportunities for regional development in the oil & gas industry. ACOA provided operating funds for NOIA in earlier days, and has been a lead contributor in many research projects established together with other federal and provincial partners. ACOA has been instrumental in the administration and allocation of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Development Fund, with its provincial government partner. This support is recognized in funding for the Bull Arm Site, Cow Head Facility, Memorial University, Institute for Marine Dynamics, C-CORE, Offshore Safety and Survival Centre, College of the North Atlantic, Offshore Career Development Fund, and more. Programs like SKIFF, EBSDP, WBI, YEDI, ISDI, and more are tangible demonstrations of ACOA support to the industry. A key contact with the federal government in policy and position areas relating to the offshore, ACOA has worked tirelessly to ensure that programs are developed for the future well being of the business community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Government of Newfoundland and Labrador


Since NOIA’s inception in 1977, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has worked cooperatively with Noia in fostering oil & gas development in this province. The Government lead the Province’s stakeholders through negotiations for the Atlantic Accord, as well as with the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose developments. The provincial government lead the charge for offshore jurisdiction for many years, and recently were successful in the resolution of the boundary dispute with Nova Scotia. They were effective in marketing the province at key trade shows, promoting our resources, supply and services sector and assisting in the development of strategic partnerships and technology transfer. The province was an equal partner in the application of the Offshore Development Fund, as they provided the foundation for a strong infrastructure in our Province. The Government has also played key roles in important Noia research projects (such as the natural gas studies). The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has always distinguished itself as a partner of Noia, adopting policies and positions that recognize the importance of oil and gas to our province's economy and society.
It is for this commitment, determination and belief, that we recognize the ongoing contributions ACOA and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Their support and guidance have been pivotal to Noia's success as an organization, and to the strength and endurance of our industry.

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