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Alaska business execs make sales call to Royal Dutch Shell, The Hague World Trade Center’s Robin Richardson says trip got the new operators of the Sakhalin project looking in the right direction: to Alaska Kay Cashman PNA Editor-in-Chief
On Oct. 5, 15 Alaska business executives and a representative from the World Trade Center Alaska visited The Sak Group of Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague, Netherlands. Their mission was to brief the new operator of the Sakhalin Island oil and gas project on the importance of Alaska expertise to the development. About half the group were already under contract with the Sakhalin project’s former operator, Marathon Sakhalin Ltd.
Shell Sakhalin Holdings BV., which recently added Marathon’s 37.5 percent interest in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. to its 25 percent interest, takes over operatorship of the Sakhalin project in early December. McVeigh has Cook Inlet experience “Marathon understood what Alaska has to offer. ... Shell was a minority in this consortium until now. And Shell doesn’t have a whole lot of experience with Alaska,” Alaska trade group member Dave Mathews from H.C. Price Co. told PNA when he returned from The Hague.
Mathews was happy to learn that the man in charge of operations for Shell in Sakhalin, Steve McVeigh, has background in Cook Inlet.
He was also pleased that The Sak Group’s senior management for engineering, procurement and logistics were all present at the Alaska trade delegation’s Oct. 5 meeting. Similarities between Sakhalin and Alaska “We briefed them on what we thought Alaska could do for their project. In turn, they talked about their timelines, strategies and tentative plans for the Sakhalin project,” Robin Richardson, the World Trade Center Alaska’s executive director, told PNA Oct. 23.
“It was the ultimate sales call is what it was,” Richardson said.
“The main purpose of the visit was to make sure that Shell was aware of the similarities between what happened in Alaska 20-25 years ago and where Sakhalin is today,” Mathews said. “Initially, almost all the labor and supplies were brought into Alaska from Outside. Now, we have local hire and local spend. We’ve been pretty smart about that. We can help Sakhalin accomplish the same thing.”
“I opened up our presentation,” Richardson said. “I talked about the relationship the World Trade Center has with Sakhalin; then I talked about the university’s relationship with Sakhalin; then the state of Alaska’s relationship, and the various exchanges and programs we have going. ... I also addressed the fact that Alaska as everything from locksmiths that speak Russian to satellite monitoring of ice flows.
“Each person ... talked about their company. Rick Pollock, Lynden International, spoke about his company’s Alaska work and contract with Sakhalin Energy. ... Everybody took exactly the time allotted to them; they supported each other as they spoke and nobody outshone the others, even between the competitors. When we left, Shell said our visit was refreshing to them. They said we were informative and provided ... answers as to why they should look to Alaska for broad-based experience and advice,” Richardson said.
She was “very impressed with the Shell people. They were very down to earth, yet very experienced internationally,” Richardson said. Timing was right “They don’t have all their decisions made about how to approach this project. ... They were very open to our suggestions for logistics, drilling, construction, everything. After the formal presentation and meeting they came back to our hotel and sat around and talked casually for a couple of hours,” Richardson said.
“It was like a cold sales call for us. We didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “As it turned out, our timing was right and the action we took was right.”
Although none of the participants expected to close any actual sales on this trip, one company that didn’t make the trip did.
“The head of Russia Shell, Rein Tambozier, has tentatively accepted Sourdough Production’s invitation to PacCom for February,” Richardson said.
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