Oil Patch Insider

Wadeen Hepworth

A GOOD NEIGHBOR HELPS OUT.... Kudos to Carlile Transportation for volunteering its Deadhorse terminal (the old Mark Air terminal) as a polling place for the new Prudhoe Bay voting precinct. The terminal is at the Deadhorse airport about two blocks from the Prudhoe Bay post office. This will help the North Slope Borough solve its need for a polling place. (For more details on the new Prudhoe Bay voting district, take a look at last week’s Oil Patch Insider.)

ONLY IN ALASKA.… Nancy Murkowski, wife of Sen. Frank Murkowski, was answering her husband’s Anchorage office phone July 2. She was taking messages and answering questions. Apparently this is not unusual for Nancy who was raised in Nome and has good one-on-one relationship with people throughout Alaska. The office staff said she is a “hoot” and, with tongue in cheek, added she “works well with the candidate.”

YOU ALL COME…. TO THE ALASKA OIL AND GAS ASSOCIATION /Anchorage Chamber luncheon July 15…. Get out those checkbooks and sign up by July 10 to hear “A Transition Report on Alaska’s Oil & Gas Industry to the Next Administration and the 23rd Alaska Legislature.”

The featured speakers are Kevin Meyers, president, Phillips Alaska; Steve Marshall, president, BP Exploration (Alaska); David Wight, president and CEO, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.; Charles Pierce, vice president, Unocal Alaska; Jack Williams Jr., Alaska production manager., ExxonMobil and Ron Noel, vice president and general counsel, Tesoro Alaska. Egan Convention Center is the place, Summit Hall is the room, 12:00 noon is the program time. Pre-paid reservations are required.

ENSTAR TO LET BIDS FOR THE KENAI KACHEMAK PIPELINE in mid July…. John Lau, vice president engineering and transmission operations with Enstar Natural Gas, and acting Kenai Kachemak Pipeline LLC project manager, said his department is currently preparing the bid documents for materials and anticipates going out to bid in mid July for the gas line pipe.

The pipe bid will include 32 miles of 12 inch outside diameter gasline pipe that will run from Marathon’s Susan Dionne pad north of Ninilchik to the Kenai Gas Field on Kalifonsky Beach Road. The staging area will be near the same area on Kalifonsky Beach Road.

The pipeline is a turnkey operation so the mills will be asked to bid to destination. Enstar expects six to eight mills in the United States and Canada to bid.

The construction package, which is also currently being prepared, will be submitted to potential contractors around Aug. 1.

Included in this bid package will be the contract that KKPL will be expecting the successful contractor to execute. Start up of construction is expected Oct. 31, 2003.

John said Enstar has been building pipelines in the Cook Inlet for more than 40 years and agreed to extend its services to manage the permitting, engineering, procurement and construction of the line.

Norstar Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Enstar’s Alaska Pipeline Co., has been formed to operate the pipeline.

OWNERSHIP UPDATE ON Kenai Kachemak Pipeline LLC…. The owners of KKPL LLC are just Marathon and GUT LLC, a subsidiary of Unocal.

Alaska Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Enstar, and Alaska Electric Generation and Transmission, of which Homer Electric Association is the primary owner, have both dropped out of the owner group.

DON’T PUT THE LONG UNDERWEAR AWAY if you are traveling to parts of the North Slope…. On July 1, it snowed in Barrow and Wainwright and other parts of the North Slope. What started out as a nice summer rain got hit with a cold front and the temperature dropped to 30 degrees producing just the right mixture for a light snowfall.

UNOCAL TRANSFERS ANOTHER EMPLOYEE FROM ASIA…. There may be some good Asian cooking going on in Kenai these days because Dale Haines, Unocal’s Indonesia drilling manager, has been transferred back to Alaska. (PNA reported Jim Harrison was transferred from Thailand in last week’s issue).

Dale was Unocal Alaska’s drilling manager from 1996-98 before going to Indonesia. He returned to Unocal Alaska this spring as drilling manager but has since been promoted to operations manager.

Dale will be responsible for HES (health, environment, safety) performance, lift cost, drilling performance and project management.

Welcome back Dale. You’re just in time to wet a line and enjoy Alaska’s beautiful summer.

A MUST READ FOR WOMEN AT PHLLIPS ALASKA: Health Magazine says Conoco one of 10 best companies for women.... Phillips’ soon-to-be partner, Conoco, has been named one of the 10 “Best Companies for Women” by Health Magazine, a national monthly publication with a circulation of 1.3 million. The July/August 2002 issue of Health said the top 10 list was compiled by canvassing “working women and workplace experts around the country to find out what they truly value.”

The article continues, “These 10 firms and two runners-up go beyond simply providing their employees excellent health insurance, adoption assistance, and on-site child care: They create an atmosphere that truly supports women in all aspects of their lives.”

Conoco was selected for its vacation policy that includes the purchase of five extra days per year, its extensive online training and career management courses, and various network groups that are supportive of women in theworkplace. One such group is the Women’s Informal Network Group, which organizes monthly meetings featuring speakers who cover women’s interests from health to work/family issues.

Also mentioned in the Health article was the availability of lactation rooms for working mothers at many of Conoco’s refineries. On-site mammograms are available at some locations as well, and the company offered benefits covering mastectomy and reconstructive surgery long before the government required it.

“Companies are realizing more and more that it’s essential to understand the needs of a diverse employee population,” said Tom Knudson, Conoco’s senior vice president of human resources, information management and corporate communications. “By creating an environment where women can develop their careers while managing homes and families, we are retaining outstanding talent and contributing to the bottom line.”

I wonder who will be the senior human resource person at the new Conoco/Phillips. After reading this article I’m sure women at both companies will have an opinion of who they would like in that position.

KUUKPIK ARCTIC CATERING insures the SDC crew is well fed…. Kuukpik Arctic Catering has been catering and taking care of EnCana’s SDC ship, which is located at Port Clarence while it is being retrofitted for exploration drilling at the McCovey prospect in the Beaufort Sea.

Rick McMillan, Kuukpik Arctic Catering’s president, said his company has been taking care of the ship for several months in preparation for the movement to McCovey.

Drilling is expected to start in November.

FORMER ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE CO. PRESIDENT FRANK TURPIN is stomping in Texas for ANWR…. Frank Turpin, who retired to Kerrville, Texas, is the perfect ambassador to explain the issues surrounding drilling in ANWR. He is on the speakers list at the University of Texas as well as various civic groups throughout Texas.

Frank said it has been estimated that 50 percent of the approximately 200 people attending the University of Texas meetings are opposed to ANWR although “they have not been hostile.” (Considering the plentiful supply of ripe tomatoes in Texas this was rather positive.)

The audiences in the civic meetings, he said, have been in favor of ANWR

Frank said the good thing coming out of the meetings was he has been able to make people think. For example, some of the audiences assumed there was a six-month supply of oil at ANWR when the most conservative estimate is the oil will last 25 years.

Arctic Power provided slides and handouts for Frank’s “walk around.”

Frank hasn’t deserted Alaska. He still spends summers here. He recently returned from Tuscany, Italy, where he, his wife Hope and their family (31 including children and grandchildren) rented a villa for a fun filled 18-day reunion.

SAVE ON AIRFARE BY ATTENDING TWO “BACK TO BACK” CONFERENCES in Texas…. The Energy Traffic Association fall conference will be held in Houston Sept. 23 and 24, 2002. This group has held meetings between oil, supply and transportation companies for more than 20 years.

The most current topics relating to each industry are discussed to educate one another to changes in regulation codes. ABB Vetco will provide the meeting facilities. For information call Garner Strickland, Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) at (713) 467-4086.

The International Association of Drilling Contractors annual meeting, Sept. 25-27, is back to back with the Energy Traffic conference. Many people expect to attend both conferences.

This meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 123 Loyola St. on the Riverwalk, San Antonio, Texas. For information contact Leesa Teel, (282) 578-7171, ext. 21.

Oil Patch Insider is written by Petroleum News • Alaska columnist Wadeen Hepworth. The Insider appears three times per month. Individuals providing news or tips to Wadeen do not have to be identified in the column. She can be reached at (907) 770-3506 or via email at [email protected].