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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Colville, then and now Company traces its roots to 1952, has been involved with North Slope oil since early days, now managed by children of founders By Becky L. Gay BLG Group
Colville Inc. traces its roots to a 1952 commercial fishing and air service business on the Colville River. From these modest beginnings, Colville grew into a diversified company that today provides fuel services, solid waste services and industrial supply for much of the North Slope oilfield industry.
Colville has been involved with the oil industry in the Arctic from the earliest years.
In 1962, the company provided support services for the Northern Transportation Co. when it barged the first seismic camps from the Mackenzie River in Canada over to the Colville River.
Bud and Martha Helmericks, working together from their family home on the nearby Colville River delta, started the company. Their location made them the closest residents to the newly discovered oil field at Prudhoe Bay.
The Helmericks shared their home, hospitality and knowledge of the area with many of the early oil explorers, while home-schooling their three sons who worked right beside them from the beginning. Bush pilot, Arctic guide Bud Helmericks, first president of Colville, is well-known as a Bush pilot and Arctic guide. In this capacity, he served as an aerial scout, ice reconnaissance river guide, and helped pioneer a number of now established Arctic technologies such as the use of ice pads and ice roads.
The first offshore ice island, drilled in the winter of 1976-77 by Union Oil, was both designed and constructed by Colville.
As the oil industry moved from exploration into production, Colville evolved into new businesses. In 1981, the second generation of Helmericks took over management and operations of the company. After returning from college with degrees in economics and engineering respectively, brothers Mark and Jeff Helmericks moved the company headquarters to its present location in Deadhorse to better serve their industry clients. Bulk fuel, solid waste services Colville began its bulk fuel operation in 1985 and now provides the majority of fuel within the Prudhoe industrial area, including a Tesoro franchise that is the farthest north gas station on our highway system.
Other essential fuel activities Colville provides are aircraft jet and avgas service, North Slope Borough village fuel supply and general industrial bulk fuel deliveries.
A second focus of the company is providing solid waste service to the industry. With a firsthand concern for waste management in the Arctic, in its earliest days of service Colville permitted the first solid waste disposal site in the area, regulated by the Alaska Public Utilities Commission under Certificate 283.
Continuing that mission as a regulated public utility (now overseen by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska), Colville recently began providing solid waste management, recycling, and disposal services to the Kuparuk, Alpine and NPR-A areas.
Solid waste services in the Arctic bring a special set of challenges, ranging from blowing snow, grizzly bears and limited landfill resources. Colville is excited about the opportunities to bring new technologies such as Refuse Derived Fuel and other recycling efforts to the market.
After less than two years of operations, Colville is now the largest provider of solid waste utility services in the North Slope industrial area. Brooks Range Supply The third major focus of Colville is industrial support through a wholly owned subsidiary called Brooks Range Supply.
Brooks Range brings a sophisticated computerized procurement system combined with a large, on-site parts inventory. This allows for both immediate supply of time critical items and for efficient purchase and requisition of routine operations and maintenance parts.
The Brooks Range slogan — “Your Source On The Slope” — stands for getting a customer their parts on time and at the right price, solving both logistics and supply problems for their clients. Environmental management Both Colville and Brooks Range recently completed their Environmental Management Systems, EMS, under the guidance of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. This provides a modern system by which to manage waste streams and perform to a high standard of environmental excellence, with measurable outcomes and documented activities to ensure compliance with laws and regulations.
During the year-long exercise, every level of the companies’ daily business was scrutinized, documented and improved to standardize and implement waste handling, with documentation. Both management and staff attended a two-day workshop provided by BP, called the “Contractor Toolbox/Mentoring Program.” Under that guidance, an EMS manual was compiled, printed and given to each employee for his or her own use. Since the EMS is a dynamic system, annual updates will be integrated into the manual to reflect changes in business units and include new employees. Each person is encouraged to offer suggestions and comments on the EMS. The effort is embraced and enforced by the highest level of management, starting with the president of the company who is intimately involved in the process and writing of the manual.
Colville President Mark Helmericks recently attended a special ceremony held by BP to receive certificates of EMS completion for both companies. The certificates are on display at the offices to remind staff and customers of the importance of individual actions in daily environmental stewardship.
Colville is proud to participate in such leading-edge efforts, providing the oil industry, as well as its other customers, with a competent and environmentally sound company with which to do business. Innovative efforts As an offshoot of the EMS process, Colville has taken some new and exciting steps to elevate the environmental imperative. One example of Colville’s innovative efforts is the creation of the “Sterile Pad Policy.” The definition of a sterile pad is on the first page of the EMS manual, which states, “a sterile pad is defined as not having anything in contact with the gravel pad except for buildings, vehicles and organized storage space such as permanent materials handling docks.” This means nothing is allowed to be on the pad, not even a cigarette butt. Management implemented a “Butt Bucks” bonus system, which allows everyone to be rewarded for the cleanliness of the pad. This policy is in effect as of June 2001 and applies to any Colville/Brooks employee or contractor activities.
Recent implementation of the Sterile Pad Policy resulted in cleaner work areas and greater employee pride. Customers have noticed and commented on how great things are looking, impressed with the efforts of staff.
Daily photos from established sites on each pad are emailed to the HSE/EMS manager to help monitor the progress as well as document the ongoing activities in each of the areas.
Teamwork Colville’s strength is in its people. Many employees are long term. The people work long hard hours for a competitive wage but it does not stop there. A corporate culture has evolved and Colville employees do whatever it takes to get the job done right. That may mean working longer hours out in the cold to fuel a rig, fix a heater, deliver needed supplies or pick up solid waste. This standard includes work ethic as well as camp life. The ‘new guys’ are given time to adjust but those failing to do so do not stay long. Both Colville and Brooks consider their employees their greatest asset, both knowledgeable and experienced in what it takes to succeed in the Arctic.
Colville’s current operations in fuel, solid waste utilities and industrial supply seem far removed from the company’s origins in commercial fishing and Bush flying service.
But much is still the same. Colville is a local company that prides itself in being owned and operated by second and third generation North Slope residents. It is committed to responsive customer service, local hire, community involvement and careful stewardship of the environment so that future generations can enjoy the blessings of a vibrant economy within the rich natural heritage of Alaska.
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