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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Wood Group Alaska keeps engines spinning and measurement devices accurate Experienced employees and mobile testing units make Wood Group Gas Turbines a profitable venture Amy Marie Armstrong Special to PNA
Wood Group Gas Turbines (Alaska) Inc. credits 13 primary factors for success of the Anchorage-based company: its 13 hard-working employees.
So says operations manager Martin Bellerive.
“They each bring a unique personality and individualized expertise to the business,” said Bellerive, with Wood Group Alaska since 1998 and its operations Alaska manager since 2001. “They each have their own little areas that they like to take care of and that makes a good fit for everyone working here and for our customers.”
Wood Group Gas Turbines (Alaska) Inc is part of Wood Group International, headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland. Its Alaska subsidiary has two separate divisions — jet engine overhaul and maintenance, and test equipment repairs and calibration.
To his knowledge, Bellerive said, all technicians have prior military experience and training. Rebuilding quickly Bellerive said that expertise is how the company was able to rebuild within six weeks of losing the majority of its electronics and calibrations testing equipment when a contract with the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. expired.
Until Alyeska transferred its own calibration facility to Fairbanks, Wood Group worked out of Alyeska’s shop and used its tools.
“It left us in a real shortcoming,” Bellerive said. “We had to quickly procure all that equipment and get a facility up and running again.”
Besides calibration work for the pipeline service company, Wood Group had begun to acquire other customers, but would need more with the loss of Alyeska.
“The decision had to be made whether to re-equip or not,” he said. “We moved forward and could not have done so without our employees.”
One of those employees is Fred Schriner, an electronics and instrumentation specialist who worked for Alyeska and Northwest Technical before joining Wood Group.
Researching older parts easily “Because of the length of time Fred has been here in Alaska with the pipeline being in service for 20-plus years now, Fred has a lot of experience with much of the older equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer,” Bellerive said. “He knows how to maintain it and that is a value-added benefit that comes along with him.”
Schriner’s job often means knowing where to look for parts in repairing obsolete equipment.
That used to mean lots of phone calls and hours spent going through manufacturers’ manuals. Now Schriner uses the Internet to find parts. But he also hangs on to old technical data manuals, just in case that option fails.
“Sometimes they will have some ideas or suggestions,” he said. “Sometimes it is frustrating to look for those old parts. But that is just part of the challenge.”
Meeting challenges is something Wood Group employees do each spring and summer as they head to the North Slope with the company’s portable testing laboratory. The mobile unit is a huge asset, Bellerive said.
“The biggest advantage it offers for us and our customers is that our customers don’t have to lose their equipment for a week or two having to ship it to us in Anchorage,” Bellerive said. “With being on site, they may lose their equipment for a day or so. It makes a big difference.” Coming soon to Kenai and Cook Inlet It’s a difference Bellerive wants to start making for oil and gas producers on the Kenai Peninsula and in Cook Inlet this fall.
“We are setting up another mobile unit housed in a 40-foot fifth wheel that will be a lot easier to get around,” Bellerive said, noting the previous unit used on the North Slope is so large that it must be brought in by a tractor-trailer.
The mobile units allow oil and gas producers to participate in the calibration process.
“Any problems we encounter, can be solved right then instead of having to send documentation long distance,” he said. “The producers can see the same database we look at when generating the information regarding their equipment.”
Compliance documentation is issued on site and the customer can put the equipment back to work immediately, Bellerive.
“The rates for the mobile lab are very competitive with what would be paid to send equipment to a lab in the Lower 48,” Bellerive said, with the added advantage of not losing use of the equipment for days or weeks at a time.
Wood Group is a ISO9002 registered company, an international standard that maintains and regulates industry standards for the service industry.
Working as a team with the instrumentation side of the business is the Rotating Equipment division of Wood Group Gas Turbines (Alaska) Inc. The Rotating Equipment business was established in 1996 in order to maintain the Alyeska Pipeline turbine engine fleet.
The Anchorage repair facility can repair and supply many turbine components including fuel nozzles, bleed valves, and balancing rotors weighing up to 10,000 pounds.
Other rotating equipment such as pumps and compressors can be repaired either in our facility or in the field.
Working in conjunction with its sister Wood Group companies around the world, the majority of the Alaska industrial turbine fleet can be supported through the local facility.
Wood Group Gas Turbines (Alaska) has state-of-the-art borescope equipment and skilled technicians to operate it. This equipment is capable of taking digital photographs from the inside of many types of rotating equipment. Using this service has saved customers time and money by identifying problems before they became serious and keeping serviceable equipment in service.
Bellerive also credits Jim Steele, project engineer for the rotating equipment section, and Art Parrish, rotating equipment mechanic, for a large part of the success that side of the Wood Group Alaska has achieved.
“Each of them has been in the turbine repair business for 20-plus years,” he said. “A lot of the knowledge we have on the types of engines maintained throughout Alaska come from those two.”
Bellerive also thanks the rest of the staff at Wood Group Alaska for their efforts.
They are Joyce Oechslin and Janet Bowers, who handle accounting, shipping and receiving. Carrie McMullen, Keith Wedin and Chris Ifland are on the calibration technician team. Greg McMullen and Ernie Jemmings work in the rotating equipment section. Sharon Shern is the sales account executive.
“Without them, we wouldn’t have the viable business we have now.” Bellerive said.
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