|
BP to cut 475 in North Slope downsizing Interests in Endicott, Liberty, Milne, Northstar to Hilcorp, which has made offers to some 200, but says its headcount not final Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
In April BP announced the sale of some of its North Slope assets to Hilcorp. In September the impact on people became known, with BP saying Sept. 15 that it will reduce Alaska employees and contractors by 475.
“The reduction includes the 200 individuals who accepted jobs with Hilcorp and an additional 275 in early 2015,” BP said in a Sept. 15 statement emailed to Petroleum News.
“Hilcorp has extended about 200 employment offers to those currently with BP on the North Slope but our final headcount is still a work in progress,” Hilcorp said in an emailed statement.
When the sale was announced in April BP said some 250 employees were associated with assets included in the agreement with the majority expected to be offered positions with Hilcorp.
BP said it currently has 2,725 employees and contractors, and that the 475 represents about 17 percent of that total.
The sale includes all of BP’s interests in the Endicott and Northstar fields and a 50 percent interest in Liberty and Milne Point, as well as BP’s interests in pipelines associated with those fields.
Hilcorp will become the operator at Endicott, Milne Point and Northstar. BP said when the sale was announced that it expected to submit a development plan for Liberty, a field in federal offshore waters, by the end of the year.
Similar to Cook Inlet entry Hilcorp said it is working to be fully staffed by the official acquisition data and is hopeful the sale will close by the end of the year.
The company said it anticipates that its North Slope entry will be similar to that in Cook Inlet, where it acquired assets from Chevron and later from Marathon, with the Chevron purchase closing in 2012 and the Marathon purchase in 2013.
“Just as our work in Cook Inlet demonstrates, Hilcorp has a successful track record growing production with increased investment when given the opportunity to operate legacy assets such as these. Doing so has allowed us to extend field life and develop energy that may have otherwise been lost,” the company said.
“In both Cook Inlet acquisitions we hired and continue to employ the vast majority of field personnel,” Hilcorp said.
On the contractor side, Hilcorp said its “long-term objective is to increase production on the North Slope and the activities required to do so will certainly drive the amount and type of support services needed.”
“While it’s too early in the process to make any final decisions on who or what will be needed, we have begun meeting with a number of contractors to better understand their capabilities and how they might support us,” Hilcorp said.
BP committed to Prudhoe BP said it “remains committed to increasing BP’s activity at Prudhoe Bay as a result of oil tax reform,” including additional investment of $1 billion over five years with two new rigs, one in 2015 and one in 2016.
Gov. Sean Parnell said he was “extremely disappointed” by the BP job reduction, but said BP Alaska President Janet Weiss had “assured me that BP remains on track for the new rigs planned for the North Slope and for new investment promised to Alaskans.”
| 