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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Petrotechnical Resources Alaska
Jessica Hess Petroleum Directory Contributing Writer
Chris Livesey, Ph.D., and Tom Walsh, co-owners of Petrotechnical Resources Alaska, PRA, will tell you that at least some of their achievements in Alaska’s petroleum industry arise from fortunate coincidences. Says Walsh, “The whole concept of the company and our coming into being was really somewhat of an accident.” If unexpected luck truly has something to do with PRA’s success, consider spending more time in close proximity to this first-class team — if some of it rubs off the results might be impressive. One lucky firm Take for instance the original formation of this consulting firm. In 1997, five independent consultants in the Alaska petroleum industry, including Walsh, understood that their marketplace needed to change to meet client needs. The two present-day co-owners will tell you that the choice to form PRA and the type of business model used happened out of good fortune.
Industry demands “forced us to create this company, basically,” says Walsh. “It just turns out that the way we organized things and the model it landed upon seems to be very accommodating to a lot of very talented people.” PRA’s lucky landings and the fortunate way that things just turned out sound suspiciously like the workings of talent, foresight and experience, not good gambling. The chosen model supports a firm that resembles a petroleum company in depth and breadth of expertise but has minimal overhead costs. Its efficient design allows the real assets of the company, the people, to shine.
Two of those brilliant assets are Chris Livesey and Tom Walsh. Livesey’s work as a professional geologist spans 15 years. In addition to working for Chevron, BP and ARCO, she taught geology classes and planned new courses for the University of Alaska as an adjunct professor. Walsh has worked for 24 years in Alaska’s petroleum industry in almost every aspect of exploration and production. His local knowledge and technical expertise cross the state. Providential consultants Can this successful organization be ascribed to the luck of the draw? Maybe, but it’s a draw of another kind — magnetic draw. Walsh notes that the occurrence manifests itself as “a magnetic attraction for people who are drawn to this type of work and the challenges and opportunities available. The more people that are attracted the more it grows.”
And grow it has. Progressing from five original partners to 70 employees in seven years has resulted from an array of elements, including PRA’s knack for luck. Walsh explains that the right person always seems to walk through the door at the right time. “We may have a demand for a skill set in which we have a weakness at the moment. And somehow, serendipitously, a person who is recognized in that field will walk in and be looking for work.”
Lucky coincidences and reputation support each other at PRA. After all, high-level professionals don’t look for work just anywhere. Says Walsh: “People with broad skill bases and great depth of knowledge tend to gravitate toward PRA. ... The word is out, the reputation is there — there’s a strong pull.” Part of the attraction lies in the high ethical standards at PRA. The firm “takes great care to protect our clients’ data and ideas, and our reputation in the community,” Walsh elaborates.
Entry-level engineers possessing strong educational backgrounds but minimal experience have also felt the magnetic draw to PRA’s reputation and submitted countless requests for employment, although with less fortunate results until just recently. The current industry movement toward high retirement rates is creating a niche for brilliant, professional people with little or no work experience, explains Walsh. “We’ve actually been able to help people get a start in the industry. That’s been exciting.”
This combination of talents old and new promotes an all-around vitality. Walsh says that Livesey and he “feel very fortunate to work with a great team of people. I think we’ve got some of the most talented people in the oil industry.” Fortunate clients A consulting firm that magnetically draws top-notch petroleum experts will naturally attract any organization in the industry as clientele. Oil and gas companies are lucky to have PRA as a resource. The firm caters to the geoscience, engineering and project management needs of corporate clients of every shape and size. The company also offers valuable services to government agencies. All of PRA’s offerings hinge on a common theme. According to Walsh, “we feel we’re here to very strongly promote the growth of the oil and gas industry in Alaska.”Impressive services The large oil producers that hold the major existing stakes in Alaska’s petroleum industry tend to call upon PRA to extend the life of oil fields. From Prudhoe Bay expansion and advancement projects to Cook Inlet gas storage and development jobs, PRA professionals in every field of expertise work with companies such as BP, Unocal, and ConocoPhillips to keep petroleum products flowing from wells that naturally decline in productivity over time.
As part of a natural market cycle, smaller oil companies continue to emerge in Alaska. These new stakeholders encounter barriers in their transition to this market that PRA helps ease. For instance, PRA facilitates land access by “supporting these companies’ review of lease-sale activity, helping state and federal agencies put together lease sales and working with Native corporations on the management of their lands,” Walsh explains.
Once a small oil producer has access to land, the unfamiliar locale comes with its own barriers. A single professional or a complete team of consultants from PRA can be brought on board to give a newcomer to Alaska’s industry a firm footing in the oilfields. PRA also has consistent and indexed databases for all of Alaska’s wells, services for well data and seismic data available.
Livesey and Walsh present one recent accomplishment as PRA’s favorite new offering — a facilities sharing project. Any stakeholder in the Alaska oilfields can see the capacity and current usage of existing petroleum processing and storage facilities by accessing the project at Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas website at http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/products/publications/otherreports. Arrangements between companies to share available facilities, instead of investing to build more, improve profitability across the board. This project best exemplifies PRA as a facilitator, Walsh and Livesey’s favored term for their company’s role in Alaska’s petroleum market.
The firm assists the state of Alaska not only by this facilities access study and helping with land acquisition activity but also with technical research. PRA recently studied the effects of a major gas sale on the production, profitability and conservation of Alaska’s petroleum resources. The results are not yet publicly available, but Walsh and Livesey confirm that their team’s fantastic work on this state-sponsored project represents more than just coincidence. Indeed, PRA creates its own environment for luck. The good luck charm Perhaps the Roman philosopher Seneca thought about the workings of a company like PRA when he stated, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The skill, foresight, ethics, experience and preparation of the professionals at Petrotechnical Resources Alaska foster its capacity for successful ventures. Alaska’s petroleum industry knows it can turn to PRA when gambling on professional results just won’t do.
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