Oil Patch Insider

Wadeen Hepworth

TotalFinaElf’s Ponder, Sangster and Moore meet with BLM

Randy Ponder, Mike Sangster, and Gregory Moore from TotalFinaElf USA Inc.’s Houston headquarters met with Bureau of Land Management officials earlier this month in a get-to-know-you type meeting. PNA’s Publisher Kay Cashman said the subject of an Anchorage office for TotalFinaElf came up. According to Kay’s sources TotalFinaElf is considering opening an office here but no final decision has been made.

TotalFinaElf was high bidder on 20 tracts in the BLM’s June 3 National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale. Company officials told Kay, back then, they were going to drill as soon as they could, although her sources say company officials were unhappy when they found out how difficult it was to permit wells in Alaska.

Last fall, TotalFinaElf had a net acreage position on state oil and gas leases of some 46,339 acres, but for practical purposes had left the state in the mid-1990s for better hunting elsewhere.

Hopefully this time they’ll stay.

THE SPELLING AIN’T THE SAME…. Ronnie Chappell, director of communications for BP Exploration (Alaska) may have to learn to spell — among other words — organization as “organisation” because he is joining BP’s corporate press office in London effective Sept. 23.

Ronnie began his public affairs career with ARCO Alaska and moved to BP Exploration (Alaska) July 1, 1999.

OIL GANG’S WALRUS ALIVE AND WELL…. Bob Bellifield, owner of Kenai Aviation, reported the walrus with the chipped tusk has been sighted at Drift River near the Cook Inlet pipe terminal. You may remember the Anchorage Daily News wrote an article, last summer saying the walrus had died but fortunately it turned out to be a case of misidentification. Seems there were two walrus and the mascot of the “oil gang” is still alive and doing well.

Bob said his son Jim saw the walrus yesterday (Aug. 19) while taking supplies to the Cook Inlet pipeline terminal. Kenai Aviation also makes flights to Nicolai Creek for Aurora Gas LLC using two Cessna 206 planes and a Twin Bonanza and that each carry five passengers. Bob promised to keep us posted on the walrus.

READY AND WAITING…. Log onto this website www.conocophillips.com and that’s all you’ll see — a name. That’s all there is until the merger of the two companies, which is rumored to be soon.

A PRANK TO BEAT ALL PRANKS…. Craig Bieber, M-I Swaco, was a good sport in playing a joke on a transportation representative when he was the Alaska distribution manager for Dresser Magcobar in Anchorage in 1982.

The transportation representative’s company and another freight company were partners in bringing freight to Alaska.

Unfortunately, the representative was reluctant to work as a partner and always tried to “get the freight” for himself. That’s when one of the partners decided to play a joke on the representative and asked Craig for help.

The partner and a friend created a drilling compound called Macgo-Chew 01, a friction reducer. A fake tariff page was created with a description of the product (a few drinks and much laughter only made the group more creative).

Macgo-Chew 01 was made of used chewing tobacco and shipped in tank cars that originated in Texas, the home of the “chew.” (During the start up of Prudhoe Bay popcorn kernels and shredded rubber tires were placed down hole. Knowing this, Chew could pass a little easier.)

Through rates were developed from Texas to Prudhoe Bay. The partners took the tariff page to Craig who took it one step further.

Craig created a fake letter to Charles Williams in Houston, Texas, mentioning their conversation about Magco-Chew 01. He stated that the company would use 1.5 million to 2.5 million pounds of chew per month and said usage could vary depending on the addition of more pump stations. He stated that he thought the rate was reasonable but also cautioned that negotiations were being kept “very low key” for obvious reasons. Craig wrote “the necessity for keeping the information to ourselves is still a priority.”

The tariff page and letter were sitting on Craig’s desk when the representative came to visit. Knowing the representative would try to take a copy or at least get the information, Craig left the room just long enough to ensure the man saw the letter and the tariff page and could copy the information.

Sure enough, true to form, the representative took the information and ran with it — and — drove himself crazy trying to find out the name of the company that produced “Chew.”

It took several weeks for him to realize he had been duped but it was several weeks of pure joy for the “partners.”

MICKEY BETTIS SECOND PERSON TO ARRIVE AT DALTON HIGHWAY WASHOUT…. Mickey Bettis, owner of Prowler’s Pilot Truck Services, was the second person on the sight of the washout at Mark Creek at milepost 345 on the Dalton Highway. Mickey had just driven north on the highway to Prudhoe Bay and had noticed some water along the road but on his return trip south, two hours later, he was the second person to see the washout start.

About 9:20 p.m., on Thursday, Aug. 15, another pilot driver called Mickey on his radio to say he needed to see what was happening to the road at Mark Creek. Mickey arrived at Mark Creek about 9:30 p.m. and saw that the road had started to crack. Mickey always has a camera at his side and fortunately for us he started to shoot the sequence of the washout (see photos on pages 10 and 11).

When Mickey arrived at Mark Creek the cracks were just beginning to show but within five minutes the water had washed out a 45-50 foot length of road along with two 60-inch and a 30-inch piece of culvert. The power of the water bent the 60-inch culvert to a 45-degree angle and the 30-inch culvert was floating in the now raging body of water. The sequential pictures (this page) show the culvert moving from the left side of the road to the right side in a total time of one minute.

Mickey and the other driver understood the flood had been reported to the state department of transportation people but they waited for hours at the washout to warn other drivers.

Mickey said when he came through Atigan Pass, Thursday morning, there was about a foot of snow on the ground. That coupled with two inches of rain from Thursday morning to Friday morning at Toolik Lake and the rain melting the snow load was more than the rivers could handle. Washouts and erosion continued at 10 to 14 areas between milepost 264 and 345 that included Ox Creek, Happy Valley and the Ice Cut.

The DOT closed the Dalton Highway Friday morning, Aug. 16, stranding trucks both north and southbound. The road was reopened on Tuesday, Aug. 21 to one- lane traffic in some areas.

ROAD CLOSURE PRESENTS PROBLEMS…. Hearing that some truckers were stranded there were rumors that airlifts of food and water were carried to the drivers but this rumor proved wrong.

Jim Young, assistant terminal manager for Lynden Transportation in Fairbanks, said they were in constant communication with their drivers using satellite phones trying to work out a solution. His drivers were stranded between Happy Valley and Mark Creek a distance of about 10 miles.

The drivers sat for a while and then learned there was a grocery truck in the area so they joked they would have plenty of ice cream and food to eat. (We have been unable to locate the owners of the grocery trucks as of this writing.)

Then someone came up from Pump Station 4 with loads to Happy Valley and radioed that there was a seismic camp owned by PGS Onshore near Happy Valley. The seismic camp had to set up on the side of the road until freeze up and there was food and lodging available for the truckers. The drivers were able to turn around and head to the PGS Onshore camp where they were given coffee, doughnuts and food.

Some of the Lynden trucks stopped at Coldfoot waiting for information on the road or dropping their loads. Then Lynden received a frantic call from Prudhoe Bay that a customer had 10,000 pounds of freight that was “hot” and needed on the Slope. Two truckers dropped their loads and picked up the ”hot freight” and headed back to Fairbanks where they were air freighted to Prudhoe.

Steve Grzebski, Carlile Transportation’s Fairbanks terminal manager, said most of their trucks were trapped at Prudhoe Bay so they left the trucks there and flew the drivers home. None of their drivers were stranded on the Dalton Highway but the road closure has caused a serious backlog of freight to build up.

Having a true trucker spirit the companies went with the flow and said that problems like this are just part of doing business.

THE SEOUL CONNECTION…. Panalpina, an international and domestic freight forwarding and logistic services company announced its bi-weekly air service from Seoul, Korea to Yuzhno–Sakhalinsk, on Sakhalin Island, began on Aug. 14.

The transit time from Anchorage to Sakhalin Island (using the Seoul gateway) is two to three days but less in hours due to the international dateline. John Hodel, Alaska branch manger, said Panalpina also has an office at the airport in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk that receives and delivers the freight to destination.

John said the company’s first freight service to Sakhalin was through Moscow. Freight originating in North America and Europe still uses the Moscow gateway. Companies in Asia, Singapore and western North America find the Seoul gateway an easier alternative.

Panalpina has a trace of lineage back to the late 1800s when horses and carts hauled freight over the Alps. The company expanded in 1950 and now has 330 world offices. The Anchorage office opened in the spring of 1998. Panalapina can ship any type of freight by ocean, air, truck or rail service and have moved oil field supplies to Europe and Asia, salmon to London and Paris, live crab to Seoul, vehicles from Germany, etc. The company also offers charter service for freight and passengers.

Oil Patch Insider is written by Petroleum News • Alaska columnist Wadeen Hepworth. The Insider appears three times per month. If you have news or a news tip for the Insider, Wadeen can be reached at (907) 770-3506 or via email at [email protected].