Jorn Stoelinga, LMR Drilling GmbH, becomes new president of the DCA

On 13 February 2019, the members' meeting of the Drilling Contractors Association (DCA) took place on a regular basis in Oldenburg. With 41 member companies of 112 member companies in the association and 93 participants, the meeting was well attended. The main objective on the agenda of this year's meeting was, besides the planned amendment of the statutes, the new elections of the board. After two years as President of the DCA, Marc Schnau was no longer available for re-election as president for professional reasons. In his speech, he thanked the members of the DCA, his colleagues on the board and the management for their excellent cooperation over the past years.

The new President of the DCA is Mr. Jorn Stoelinga of LMR Drilling GmbH, Oldenburg.

With 29 years of professional experience in horizontal drilling technology, he is a recognized and valued expert in the industry. After studying oil production technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Den Helder, he held various positions in HDD and pipeline construction at the Dutch companies Nacap and Visser & Smit Hanab b.v. before joining LMR Drilling GmbH at the end of 2018. During his career he has worked in Europe as well as in Central America and South East Asia.

Jorn Stoelinga has been a member of the DCA Board since 2015 and was initially responsible for the training of site managers and machine operators in the Netherlands. Since 2017, he was elected as a DCA Vice President, during this time he took over the leadership of the task group "Coating Quality".

In his inaugural speech, the new president announced that the previous objectives of the DCA would continue to be actively pursued in the future. In particular, the European idea of the association is to be given even more focus. After the successful introduction of two representatives of the DCA in Spain and Italy, further representatives will follow, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe. With the amendment of the articles of association and the new allocation of board positions, the profile of the DCA is to be further sharpened, especially in the area of HDD small drilling technology. In addition to promoting training and further education measures for specialist personnel, the DCA continues to endeavour to provide and further develop technical standards and recommendations. The association will continue to focus on measures to further develop technology, increase quality and harmonise contractual and competitive conditions.

After the election of the president the following members of the DCA were elected to the board:

• Vice-President (Small Scale Drilling): Marco Reinhard (Leonhard Weiss GmbH & Co. KG)
• Vice-President (Large Scale Drilling): Atef Khemiri (HDI)
• Vice-President (Associate Members): Dr. Tim Jaguttis (de la Motte & Partner Ing. mbH)
• Treasurer: Jürgen Muhl (STEP Oiltools GmbH)
• Board Member: Marc Schnau (x-plan schnau engineering)
• Board Member: Franz-Josef Kißing (Open Grid Europe GmbH)
• Board Member: Scott Stone (Visser & Smit Hanab bv)

Site manager training course at TRACTO-TECHNIK

On 13.03.2019 the construction supervisor training course will take place again at TRACTO-TECHNIK in Lennestadt. The event will be held in cooperation with the DCA and the companies Moll-prd and AMC. As in previous years, the DCA will be in charge of the technical management. The event is aimed at owners and managing directors of specialist foundation engineering companies and drilling companies, HDD construction managers and HDD project managers and focuses on supplement management and drilling mud disposal.

If you are interested, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Members meeting and Oldenburg Pipeline Forum 2019

The Members Meeting will take place on 13^th February 2019 as usual at the Hotel Wöbken in Oldenburg. One day later the DCA invites its members, partners and friends from the HDD industry to the traditional Oldenburg Pipeline Forum at the University of Applied Sciences Oldenburg/Ostfriesland/Wilhelmshaven. The event will take place from 14 to 15 February 2019 under the motto: "Pipelines - Transport medium for drinking water and waste water".

The DCA is traditionally represented on Thursday with two HDD lecture blocks of three lectures each. Afterwards the all-sided popular Drilling Saloon of the association waits for the participants and may be headed for the exchange of experiences. We are looking forward to your visit! 

Workshop "HDD-Small Scale drilling" at the February 5^th, 2019 in Aachen

The DCA held a workshop on the topic "DCA guidelines/requirements for small drilling technology" at the last annual congress in Frankfurt/Oberursel in October, in which possible simplifications for HDD-Small Scale drilling were discussed intensively. In the course of the discussion, however, it quickly became clear that there is still a considerable need for clarification and information among the members. The DCA board is not planning to lower the minimum standards for HDD drilling laid down in the guidelines, but may be developing a recommendation for smaller HDD categories. However, such a recommendation can only be drawn up with the involvement of the member companies concerned. At the annual congress the response of the companies from the HDD small scale drilling group and from the client sector was too low to achieve reliable results. Therefore, the board would like to use the HDD member forum established in 2018 to further deepen the topic "DCA guidelines/requirements for small scale drilling" and to find common approaches with the affected members. The one-day event will take place on February 5th, 2019 in Aachen, in the Novotel Aachen City, in the form of an in-house work shop and will be linked to the questions raised at the annual congress in Oberursel last october.

Target group

The workshop is primarily aimed at HDD-project and site managers, skilled supervisors, consultants and clients and also interesting machine operators. Participation in the event is free and reserved for DCA member companies only.

Please register under This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Change at the DCA Board – President Marc Schnau announces resignation for 2019

DCA Members Forum will take place again in early 2019 - Topic: "HDD Small Scale Drilling“

At the end of a very interesting and informative annual congress in Oberursel, President Marc Schnau informed the participants that for professional reasons he will not be available for the re-election of the DCA President next February. To what extent he would take over another position in the board, he left open. Two years ago, the 45-year-old native of Lower Saxony took over the board from honorary member Hermann Lübbers and continued the successful work with his board members.

Schnau also explained that he would like to reorient himself professionally and that he would like to end his many years of work at Bohlen & Doyen at his own request at the end of 2018. At the beginning of 2019 he will then work with his own engineering office for planning and consulting in the HDD industry. A continuation of the DCA presidency would not be justifiable in the course of the professional change. However, he left no doubt about the question of succession to the DCA president. The board had already dealt intensively with the situation and would present a viable solution proposal to the members at the members meeting next February.

Since its election two years ago, the Executive Board has worked intensively on the existing tasks and set new goals, which will be continued by its follower. One of these tasks consists in particular of directing the focus more on the drilling companies as members of the association and in particular the requests of the small drilling technology more to consider. Schnau announced among other things changes in the structure and responsibility of the board. To this end, an amendment to the statutes is currently being worked on, which would then be submitted to the members for voting at the beginning of 2019.

Finally, he drew the attention of the participants to the DCA Members' Forum 2019, which will take place again at the beginning of 2019. The date and place will be announced shortly. Participation is reserved for members only. This year's forum will primarily deal with the topic "HDD small scale drilling”. The programme and registration documents will be sent to members at the beginning of December.