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Umiat “Hilton” gets facelift Mike Tolbert and partners buy remote lodge in anticipation of serving as staging area for exploration activity in NPRA, Brooks Range Foothills Alan Bailey PNA Contributing Writer
The so-called Umiat “Hilton,” a small lodge next to the Colville River on the North Slope, is undergoing a major upgrade and facelift. Its new owner, Umiat Commercial Co. Inc., is improving and extending the accommodations and service facilities in Umiat in anticipation of increased exploration activity in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Brooks Range Foothills.
Umiat Commercial will offer full-service logistical support for companies operating in the southern and western areas of the North Slope.
Umiat, reputedly the coldest place in Alaska, sits in a strategic location at the center of the North Slope. The tiny outpost boasts one of the best airstrips in the region, and enjoys excellent telephone communications via an AT&T Alascom earth station that is located there. “It’s got a lot going for it,” Mike Tolbert, president of Umiat Commercial, told PNA. “It’s got a beautiful airstrip, and if facilities are available it’s attractive to people coming out of that area.” Navy built Umiat in 1944 The history of Umiat goes back to World War II, when in 1944 the U.S. Navy established a base for oil exploration near the Colville River. Attracted by reports of oil seepages in the Umiat area, the Navy drilled 11 exploratory wells, in the hopes of bolstering fuel supplies for the war effort. The Navy also constructed the 5,400 foot runway that still forms the focal point of the Umiat facilities.
Although the Navy left the area after about nine years, oil explorers continued to use Umiat.
In recent years a company called Umiat Enterprises, owned by O.J. Smith, operated the lodge in Umiat. When Smith passed away last year, his family put the lodge up for sale. Fairbanks businessman Mike Tolbert and his partners, Mick Killian and Tony Karl, bought the facilities.
“We acquired the facilities there — there’s a little lodge … and a fuel depot,” Tolbert said. Tolbert and his partners formed Umiat Commercial to develop and operate the facilities. Umiat’s strategic location With Phillips Alaska Inc. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. drilling in the NPRA and gas exploration under way in the Brooks Range foothills, Tolbert thinks that Umiat is strategically located to serve as a staging area for oil and gas exploration and development.
“We’re revamping the fuel pit and storage area and we’re building a complete new housing facility and lodge on a nearby lot that we lease from the state,” Tolbert said. “Hopefully it will be an attractive and safe place to stay, and as comfortable as possible … it’s going to be a very nice facility and we hope to be able to sleep up to around 70 people when we’re up to speed.”
As well as accommodations, Umiat Commercial will provide a variety of supplies, including fuel.
Tolbert also plans a comprehensive logistics support service, to help people move equipment and supplies into the area. The company will freight goods from its base in Fairbanks and then consolidate shipments in Umiat.
“We can provide the ability to get things in and out, and can provide services for the best way to get in there,” Tolbert said. Focal point is Umiat’s airstrip The airstrip, which forms the fulcrum of logistical operations in Umiat, can handle large airplanes.
Aircraft flying North Slope routes use Umiat as an alternate landing place, Tolbert said. “Jets, Wien, used to go in there years ago and had a base that … provided service on a regular basis to Umiat,” Tolbert said.
Although the Umiat airstrip is a state-owned, public airport, the state stopped maintaining the airstrip in 1992. Soon after state maintenance ended, the Federal Aviation Administration decommissioned the navigational aids associated with the airport.
The Smith family, who owned the lodge before Tolbert and his partners, continued some maintenance on the airstrip, in order to enable its own airplanes to fly in and out.
“We are (also) having to maintain it because we have to fly our own supplies in on a regular basis,” Tolbert said. “Obviously we need food — people need to move back and forth.”
With the increased use of the airport and the strategic importance of the area for oil exploration, Tolbert hopes that the state will restart airport maintenance. It needs more than just putting a grader down it, he said. “We’re trying to encourage the airlines, air carriers … air taxi services to petition the state.” New structures are on site During the winter the company built some structures in Fairbanks for Umiat: “We trucked those structures plus some heavy equipment into Prudhoe,” Torbert said, “and then rolligoned … to move seven loads into Umiat.”
The construction team is now waiting for the ground to thaw out, so that work on leveling the area for the new structures can begin.
“Officially we took over the facility on April 1,” Tolbert said. “We’re doing a lot to get our facilities up to speed and up to code.”
Tolbert and his partners have been particularly anxious to construct the new facilities this year because of a major project to clean up environmental contamination in the Umiat area. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is underwriting a cleanup of contaminated waste dumps left by the Navy when it occupied the site 50 years ago. “(The work) includes sealing off a couple of wells which are close to the Colville River, to keep them from contaminating the river,” Tolbert said.
Umiat Commercial hopes to provide lodging, fuel and other commodities for people working on the project.
Although the cleanup project may provide some near-term work, Tolbert sees most future business coming from oil and gas exploration in the area. For example, PGS has already been doing seismic surveys in the Foothills for Anadarko. “And (PGS) was just in that area to pick up fuel from us,” Tolbert said.
But, Tolbert recognizes the business risks inherent in the Umiat venture, as no-one can be certain how much oil and gas exploration will occur in the area.
“It’s a totally speculative thing on our part,” he said. “Like everything else in the oil business, (exploration) has a tendency to go up or down, depending on the economy and the pricing and that sort of thing,” he said.
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