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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Stamps hard at work in Calgary for Core Energy
Rose Ragsdale For Petroleum Directory
Bill Stamps, former manager of business development and external affairs for Peak Oilfield Service Co. in Alaska, has a knack for landing on his feet in new situations.
Sent to Nabors Canada in Calgary in January 2005 on a six-month assignment (Peak is partly owned by Nabors), Stamps elected to stay on in Alberta to become vice president of business development for Core Energy Solutions, a pipelines and facilities construction company Nabors purchased out of bankruptcy.
Just as chance brought him to Alaska in 1970 after he helped to erect an offshore platform in California, so have the vagaries of fortune transported him to Canada. And just as Stamps came to Alaska for just six weeks to help out a friend on the North Slope and ended up staying for 25 years — 17 years with Peak, so has he extended his “temporary” stay in the Canadian oil patch.
Stamps: ‘Working my butt off’ When asked in a recent interview what he is doing in Canada, Stamps replied: “Working my butt off, and loving every minute of it.”
The former president of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance and leader in the group’s Kenai Chapter now spends his days looking for new construction projects all over central and northern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.
Most of Core Energy’s work involves building oil and gas infrastructure, but Stamps says the contractor is looking into branching into other industry sectors. Core Energy employed more than 400 workers on construction projects last winter, and expects to ramp up employment again this fall with at least 400, if not more, workers.
Stamps’ wife, Charlene, also landed on her feet, working for the same employer, DHL Danzas, in Calgary for whom she did in Alaska.
Looking back on a quarter century spent in the Alaska oil patch, Stamps says his most memorable experiences center on his unrelenting struggles to overcome unreasonable opposition from environmentalists to responsible energy development in the state.
“For a wonderful place like Alaska that receives 80 percent of its unrestricted revenue from the oil and gas industry, it never ceases to amaze me that so many people in the state are against responsible development,” he said. “In Alberta, we put pipelines across farmers’ fields, and they are very open to it. Here, they welcome responsible oil and gas development.”
Beef, not seafood; golf, not fishing A memorable achievement during his Alaska career, was co-founding the Sakhalin-Alaska College in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with Dennis Steffy, director of the University of Alaska’s Mining and Petroleum Training Service, according to Stamps.
“It was a pleasure to work with Dennis in pioneering Alaska’s involvement in the Russian Far East,” he says.
He also recalls good times working with various community groups including the Resource Development Council, Kenai Boys & Girls Club and Kenai Chamber of Commerce.
What does he miss most about Alaska? “My friends,” says Stamps, “and something I took for granted for 25 years — fresh seafood.”
“That’s just not happening over here,” he chuckles. “But the best beef in the world is Alberta beef.”
In his leisure time, Stamps plays golf at one of the 40 golf courses within a 45-minute radius of Calgary. “I try to play golf when I get a chance,” he says.
Of fishing, he adds: “I haven’t wet a hook since I left Alaska.”
Stamps and his wife would love to hear from friends in Alaska. They can be reached at [email protected].
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