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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: URS Corp. provides engineering, environmental services From beginning to end, URS can provide services for your project needs Jen Ransom PNA Contributing Writer
URS Corp. is well known for its capabilities in environmental baseline studies, impact assessments, environmental compliance, permitting support and thorough project planning. But the company’s Alaska Principal Engineer Jack Colonell wants potential clients to know about another aspect of the corporation: Engineering.
“Our goal is to provide a broader range of engineering services to our clients,” said Colonell in a recent interview. “We’ve always offered specialized engineering services to the major oil companies operating in Alaska, but we want all of our clients to know that we offer one-stop shopping for their project needs — from inception to completion and operation.”
URS provides a broad range of engineering services, which include infrastructure design and construction management. This is in addition to the environmental science services that URS and its predecessor companies have provided in Alaska since the 1960s. URS’s Alaska workload is evenly divided between oil and gas clients, federal agencies, and other commercial clients, as well as state and local governments.
Long-standing Alaska clients URS traces its history in Alaska through Woodward-Clyde Consultants, Dames & Moore Group and Radian International, all of which were acquired by URS between 1997 and 1999. Consequently, URS has many long-standing relationships with Alaska clients. While individual projects may last a few months to a year, many of URS’s client relationships are built on records of service that extend back two or more decades. Notwithstanding these long relationships, Colonell says that URS is always eager to offer new clients the capabilities that are based on the firm’s long history in Alaska.
Colonell says that URS is especially ready to provide its services to the new generation of oil and gas companies that are beginning operations in Alaska.
“These independents are facing the same environmental regulations and engineering challenges that were experienced by there predecessors,” said Colonell. “We see more clients coming our way.”
URS’s forte is working in the development and production arena, but Colonell is ready and eager to also help these and other companies in exploration activities as well. Of particular interest to many of the new oilfield developers should be URS’s background in coastal zone management, something many oil and gas companies, whatever the size, must consider in most Alaska projects.
North Slope experience Referring to Alaska’s North Slope as the oil industry’s “international classroom,” Colonell described the utilization of many Anchorage-based staff in oil and gas projects worldwide. Colonell himself has managed projects based in the republics of Azerbaijan, Philippines and Venezuela. Other Alaskans have managed or participated in projects in Ecuador, Tunisia and Indonesia. Colonell says “The common denominator that qualifies our staff for such assignments is their experience on the North Slope, where our clients send their own staff for training.”
When Colonell returned to Alaska from Venezuela in 1999, he was reassigned as the manager at the URS Woodward-Clyde office, his third tour in that post. Shortly after the acquisition of Dames & Moore Group, which included Radian International, URS’s Alaska employees grew from 25 to 70 people, at which point URS management directed Colonell to “put it all together and make it work.” Colonell’s priorities suddenly became (1) get everyone under one roof, (2) reduce the number of operating systems from three to one, and (3) find a successor to manage URS Alaska operations.
Colonell is now the principal engineer and vice president at the URS Alaska headquarters. His successor, Mick McKay, is the operations manager.
Clients throughout the state With branch offices in Fairbanks and Homer, URS’s Alaska practice encompasses a wide variety of clients and diverse activities that span the state from Adak to Ketchikan and from Barrow to Anchorage.
URS is now working on an environmental impact statement for the National Marine Fisheries Services, which is evaluating the management of the ground fish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. On the engineering side, URS is working with individual Bush villages in designing and construction management of bulk fuel storage facilities. URS designed the closure of the Barrow landfill, and is now overseeing the implementation of that design by construction contractors. Finally, Colonell reiterated that URS’s services extend from project inception to project closure.
“Companies have to show (in their plans) how they are going to end their projects,” said Colonell. “This is required even when the project may not end for 50 more years.”
“We want people to know that URS’s services support the entire life cycle of their projects.”
To contact URS, please call (907) 562-3366. The Website is www.urscorp.com.
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