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BP changes North Slope management scheme Organization around fields changed to surface, subsurface business units; some jobs lost, other shuffled in state, companywide Elizabeth Bluemink Anchorage Daily News
BP is quietly finalizing a major reorganization of its Alaska operations — some workers are losing their jobs and many others are getting new duties, the oil company said April 6.
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. had about 2,000 employees before the restructuring began several months ago and will have “about” the same number when it is finished, the company’s spokesman Steve Rinehart said.
He declined to say exactly how many workers are losing their jobs and how many are getting reassigned. The numbers are still in flux, he said.
The biggest component of BP’s reorganization has involved the dismantling of two major business units, one that managed the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and the other that managed all of the other BP oil fields on the Slope. BP runs most North Slope fields on behalf of itself and the other oil-company leaseholders.
BP has replaced those business units with two new ones based on function rather than geography: One runs BP’s surface operations and the other is responsible for maintaining the underground oil reservoirs.
Job reduction not goal Some Alaska employees are getting new responsibilities, others have lost their jobs, some have retired, and still others found new positions at BP, Rinehart said.
“We didn’t go into this with a goal to reduce the head count,” Rinehart said.
One BP hourly worker on the Slope said he has heard a lot of talk about the reorganization but hasn’t seen many people losing their jobs. He works for a union and thus his job is not at risk, he said. He knows one person — a manager — who is no longer at BP, he said.
“We do this about every five to seven years, shuffling things around,” said Mark Niver, the BP employee.
Niver said he and other BP workers at Prudhoe unionized years ago mostly because they “got tired of these reorganizations.”
This year’s reorganization has affected people from the top level of BP’s Alaska operation to people who work on projects in the field, Rinehart said.
Two BP senior vice presidents in Alaska were given new job titles and revised responsibilities. Mike Utsler, who ran the Greater Prudhoe Bay production unit, is now in charge of all surface operations on the North Slope. Max Easley, who ran BP’s other oil fields, such as North Star and Endicott, is now senior vice president for resources, meaning that he is in charge of maintaining BP’s below-surface operations.
Similar reorganization is under way at other BP operations around the world, Rinehart said.
The state’s Oil and Gas Division director, Kevin Banks, said April 6 that BP has not formally shared information about the reorganization with his office but he has heard “vague rumors” about it.
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