Interviewer: Jason Theriot

Affiliation: University of Houston

Charles “Chuck” Enze grew up in South Dakota, where he attended South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, graduating in 1975 as a civil engineer. Enze took on with Shell Oil at the start of 1976, eager to work on offshore platform designs for the Gulf of Mexico. In 1977 he was tapped to assist the design and construction team for the Cognac deepwater platform. After stints with Shell in Houston; California; and on the North Slope of Alaska working on Shell’s offshore efforts in the Chukchi Sea, Enze returned to the Gulf of Mexico as Shell ramped up its efforts in the nascent deepwater basin. From 1987 to 2006, Enze served in a number of capacities for Shell in deepwater, from overseeing the development of the Auger tension-leg platform from construction to its installation in the early 1990s, to overseeing the work of multiple Shell business groups from 2000 until his retirement six years later.