Pride Offshore relocating staff to Houston

Pride Offshore in Houma, a branch of the Houston-based oil-drilling contractor Pride International, is moving 37 employees out of its Houma office who work in administrative and management positions in the jackup rig division, according to Pride spokesperson Christie Kaluza.

The office for Pride International’s U.S. Gulf of Mexico drilling operation is located in Houma.

Kaluza said that Pride’s Houma shipyard is not moving.

The 37 employees in Houma would either relocate, or opt not to stay on with the company, she said.

Pride contracts with other oil companies to perform some of their petroleum-drilling activities.

The company has 11 jackup, and seven fixed-platform, drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico operating out of its Houma office.

Kaluza could not say anything about the status of the platform rig division controlled from Houma.

“At this point, this does not affect the platform division,” Kaluza said.

She said that Pride International is moving the employees out of Houma to be closer to the corporate support group in Houston, and to be closer to key customers and suppliers.

Terrebonne Economic Development Authority CEO Mike Ferdinand said that the Authority is having a “continuing dialogue” with Pride Offshore.

“We will work with Pride to see what we can do as it relates to this” situation, he said. “We’re going to try to reverse this.”