Kevin Costner's Texas firm touts oil spill cleaner

Houston Chronicle ^ | May 5, 2003, 11:10PM | By DAVID KAPLAN

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The Offshore Technology Conference at Reliant Center is an endless maze of booths with thousands of companies and subsidiaries represented.

Each booth vies for the attention of passers-by with giveaways like pens and candy.

But Booth No. 2269 offered Kevin Costner, and it was mobbed.

Women froze in their tracks.

"Oh, my God. That is Tin Cup," one said.

Costner's appearance was not some company stunt. He is the company -- the driving force behind Costner Industries Texas, whose product, the liquid-liquid centrifugal separator, separates oil from water and was designed to clean up major oil spills.

Costner, who said he has sunk almost $15 million into the 9-year-old business, was joined by three of his associates at the conference.

Costner said he invested millions he's made from movies into Costner Industries Texas, or CIT, because of his longtime dream to find a way to minimize damage from oil spills.

He obtained the license for his product, which was developed 30 years ago, from the U.S. Department of Energy in 1993.

A liquid-liquid centrifugal separator spins fluids very fast, and the centrifugal force from the spinning motion causes oil and water to separate.

CIT's product is a simple device that is efficient and easy to maintain, according to Chuck Harrison, the company's director of field management. The equipment performs separation, extraction and washing functions, and has applications to other industries, including food, pharmaceutical, mining and printing.

So far, the company has installed hundreds of its machines for companies outside the oil industry and has just begun to push into the oil market, Harrison said.

CIT has not yet had the opportunity to clean up a big oil spill, but Harrison said he is confident of the product's effectiveness.

Until recently, the company was based in Carson City, Nev., and was called Costner Industries Nevada Corp.

Over the past year or so, the company changed its name, moved its headquarters to Houston and brought in a new management team.

Costner has majority ownership of the privately held business but is not involved in its daily operations.

He founded the company with his brother, Dan Costner, who is no longer involved. He has since brought on Joe Bradford as president and chief executive officer, and venture capitalist Rod Lake as chairman of the board.

Costner and Lake have been friends since age 18 and have been partners in other investments, including a bank.

Lake has invested in two of Costner's movies, Dances With Wolves and The Bodyguard, "the two that made the most money," he noted.

An Academy-Award winning actor, Costner has a strong entrepreneurial bent.

For years, he said, he has been trying to develop a resort in South Dakota, but so far has had little luck finding investors.

Yet to show a profit, his CIT is a major financial risk, Costner said, but so was the decision to go into acting.