TETRA TECHNOLOGIES INC. /The Woodlands, Texas A Hunch Pays Off, And A Company Rebounds.(THE NEW AMERICA)

Byline: Chris Woodard

In early 2000, Tetra Technologies Inc. decided to position itself more squarely as an oil services company. The move must have seemed pretty counterintuitive at the time.

Oil and gas prices were at low ebb, and the oil industry was stuck in a slump. But Geoffrey Hertel, the company's chief executive, had a hunch things would turn around.

He decided to sell off noncore businesses and expand the company's lines in the oil services sector. The gamble paid off for Tetra.

"You have to give credit to Hertel," said Blake Hutchinson, analyst with Howard Weil. "A lot of the clutch decisions have to be made when the crystal ball is foggy. He brought to light the fact that the company was chasing all these businesses that didn't fit into its core competency."

Tetra sells drilling fluids, provides oil and gas production testing services and provides abandonment services for played-out wells for customers such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Texaco Inc., Royal Dutch/Shell Group and myriad independents.

The company used to sell chemicals to the agricultural industry as part of its Micronutrients Division. But it was a low-margin business that Hertel decided to sell.