By Carlson Wagonlit Travel's estimates, the energy sector spends about $4.3 billion annually on air travel, and not one travel management company holds more than 20 percent of that market. In order to grab more share and refine the specialized travel services required by energy companies, CWT last month formed its Global Energy Services Group, the TMC's first global division focusing solely on the travel needs of one particular industry segment.
In the backyard of many energy companies, Houston-based senior vice president of Global Energy Services Gary Pearce said CWT has more than 100 clients in what CWT called the "highly fragmented" energy sector—an industry that Pearce said includes everything from exploration and production companies, drilling contractors, maritime and shipping providers and even wind and alternative energy companies. "We really have been doing a lot of this type of business, and it really made sense to focus on it because of all of the growth around the world," Pearce said. "When you put all that together, I don't think anybody has more than 20 percent of the market, because this is so new. It's not like we all share information, so we don't know what everyone else has."
According to
BTN'smost recent Corporate Travel 100 report—based on data from 2008—CWT had the largest share of corporate clients in the energy segment among the top 100 companies ranked by spending on U.S.-booked air travel in the United States, serving as the agency of record for BP, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and splitting the ExxonMobil account with competitor American Express. BCD Travel, meanwhile, held the Schlumberger account, while Amex served as the agency for ConocoPhillips.
"While energy companies have some basic day-to-day business travel, they also have very specialized travel," Pearce said. "As we started growing and picking up more of the business, that's where we thought this could be a different type of business, so we thought, let's put a group together where we can put a consistent service delivery product together around the world."
While they do their fair share of travel on traditional corporate citypairs like New York to London, energy companies also are likely to send travelers to Laos for exploration, through the Sudan for shipping or to an offshore oil rig far from the usual centers of business. With that kind of travel comes the need for specialized services, Pearce said, from visa and passport issues and specialty ground and air transportation to heightened traveler tracking and emergency or evacuation services.
To help fulfill such travel needs, Pearce said the new division would include the services of Marine & Oilfield Travel Logistics International, a CWT-owned fare consolidator that supplements corporation-specific negotiated rates with specialty fares for marine and offshore travel. CWT also is offering its energy clients a dedicated around-the-clock emergency services desk called Oilfield Services 24, staffed by agents dedicated to energy clients.
In many cases, Pearce said CWT's energy clients already were using such services, but as the segment grew and clients increasingly globalized, the TMC saw the opportunity to broaden the offering. "We formalized the division and the group, but by doing that we also expanded our reach so that we can use all of the technology that CWT has, along with the experience and the expertise of the agent pool and management group that has been servicing these kind of accounts," Pearce said.
Pearce said CWT is dedicating regional senior directors to Energy Services, including one director in Europe, Middle East and Africa, another in Latin America and another in Asia/Pacific.
"Very candidly, we were trying to do all of this out of Houston," Pearce said. "Now, we're trying to grow the business and get out where the clients and the potential clients are and put the processes, product and procedures in place so we can have a consistent service delivery around the world."