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BP Exploration to pick up 560 employees at Prudhoe Bay Company names Neil McCleary of BP to lead greater Prudhoe Bay business unit, Bill Johnson of ARCO as Prudhoe field manager Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. said June 5 that its Alaska workforce will increase from 740 to approximately 1,300 as it becomes the single operator at the Prudhoe Bay field and accelerates its efforts to develop a competitive North Slope gas sale project.
Most of the new employees will become part of BP Exploration’s greater Prudhoe Bay business unit, responsible for the operation and continued develop of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, adjacent fields and satellite accumulations, the company said.
BP said it expects to fill the majority of the new positions with people who have worked at Prudhoe Bay for years, many as long-term employees of ARCO Alaska.
BP Exploration’s Shared Services Technical unit will be expanded to support the combined Prudhoe Bay organization and other BP-operated fields.
The consolidated Prudhoe Bay and drilling organization will have 185 fewer positions then when BP Exploration and Phillips Alaska each operated half of the field, with expected cost savings and efficiencies of $100 million a year, the company said.
Phillips Alaska down in size ARCO Alaska Inc. had 1,500 positions and 1,460 employees. The new Phillips Alaska organization will have 560 fewer employees. “Our organization in Alaska will be about 900 employees,” Phillips Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience told PNA June 5. In addition, she said, Polar Tanker Co., the former ARCO Marine Inc., will have about 350 employees.
Patience said Phillips Alaska gave employees until June 1 to indicate their preference to remain Phillips’ employees or retire. Employees who the support the Prudhoe Bay unit, she said, could also express an interest to become a BP Exploration (Alaska) employee or work during a transition. Phillips Alaska will be sorting through those expressions of interest over the next few weeks and trying to accommodate employees as best they can within the new business unit, Patience said. Employees whose positions could be eliminated as a result of the agreement for a single operator at Prudhoe Bay will be given a severance package, she said.
Phillips Alaska will operate Alpine and Kuparuk and any new fields to the west.
New management team named “This organization is designed to make the most of new opportunities for drilling, satellite field development, enhanced oil recovery and gas development made possible by the realignment of interests at Prudhoe Bay and the move to a single operator,” said Richard Campbell, president of BP Exploration (Alaska).
Neil McCleary of BP Exploration (Alaska), who previously served as field manager for the western half of the Prudhoe Bay field, will lead the greater Prudhoe Bay business unit.
H.W. (Bill) Johnson, who previously served as field manager for the ARCO-operated eastern half of the field, will serve as Prudhoe Bay’s first field-wide field manager.
“We are pulling together a talented team with tremendous Alaska experience,” McCleary said. “It’s a team with the know-how to do great things at Prudhoe Bay for the field owners and for Alaska.”
Other members of the BP Exploration (Alaska) management team include: Mark Bly, Milne, Endicott, Kuparuk, Badami; Anne Drinkwater, Alaska pipelines and marine; Chris Phillips, Shared Services technical; Tom Blackwell, business unit resource; Jim Palmer, external affairs; Greg Mattson, Alaska new developments; F.X. O’Keefe, Alaska exploration; Ken Konrad, gas; Ross Llie, health, safety, environment; and Sandy Beitel, human resources.
Employee preferences a consideration Like Phillips Alaska, BP Exploration (Alaska) has asked employees for their preferences and will consider them as staffing decisions are made.
“Our plan is to work with Phillips to manage this consolidation so that when business circumstances allow, employees achieve the outcomes they want whether it’s a job at Phillips, a job at BP Exploration, retirement or the chance to pursue new opportunities,” McCleary said.
BP Exploration (Alaska) spokeswoman Carla Beam told PNA June 5 that expressions of interest have just wrapped up at BP. “We’ll be taking a look at those as we’re selecting people for positions; people may end up in other positions at BP or Phillips,” she said.
“Company-wide we’ve given people the opportunity again to indicate if they’d like to leave,” she said, providing an “opportunity to look at what the needs or the company are and what individual’s wishes are.” There will be a severance package, she said, but because somebody indicates they would like to leave, it’s not a given that they will. “BP will be meeting the needs of the company,” she said.
The company will let people know by July 1, the date it expects to be confirmed as the single operator of Prudhoe Bay. Beam said it may take some time to transition from two operators to one.
BP Exploration (Alaska) will operate production of 800,000 barrels of oil a day, about 80 percent of total North Slope production.
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