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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: American Marine goes the depths and miles in Alaska’s wild waters Whether plunging into icy seas or doing oxygen therapy for hospitals, American Marine turns specialized skills and gear into business diversity Dawnell Smith PNA Contributing Writer
Alaska bush pilots get plenty of kudos for flying the state’s unpredictable skyways, but it takes just as much mettle and skill to plunk oneself into the icy, roiling waters of the Cook Inlet to inspect a pipeline or repair a leaky weld.
Despite inhospitable seas and nasty weather, the people at American Marine Corporation navigate and dunk into the foreboding abyss without getting in over their heads. When diving the depths or plying the waters, American Marine does a variety of work like dredging, towing, underwater welding, vessel repair, salvage work, rescue and spill response, crew boat transportation and bridge, dock and marina construction. They even serve hospitals by operating a hyperbaric chamber that provides prescribed pressurized oxygen therapy to people with diabetic ulcers, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, smoke inhalation and other conditions.
True, Alaska boasts an inordinate share of intriguing occupations, but “we work in one of the most extreme environments in the world,” Rusty Nall, vice president of American Marine Services Group of Hawaii, told PNA in June. From balmy shore to icy oil rig American Marine Services Group began in 1973 as a small Hawaiian diving company known as American Divers. A decade later, American Divers and its sister company, American Workboats, expanded across the Pacific Basin and operated offices in both Honolulu and Los Angeles. During that period, the company also formed Pacific Environmental Corporation (PENCO) as a spill response and environmental services company.
“It always seems that every time you’ve got a diving, boat or marine operation, you have an environmental concern,” Nall explained.
Though based on balmier shores, the thriving company got a taste of Alaska immediately after the Exxon oil spill when it sent four tugboats and five barges to handle clean-up work and bioremediation.
Then, when another marine services business went bankrupt, American Divers seized the opportunity and formed regional offices in Alaska. With that move in 1994, both PENCO and American Divers forged a solid foothold in the state.
Four years later, American Divers took the name American Marine Corporation. As its family of companies, American Marine Services Group includes American Marine Corporation, PENCO and American Deepwater Engineering.
Dams, platforms and satellite launchers Today, the Alaska office employs a few dozen people and bring in $3 million to $4 million annually, Nall said.
With services that range from hazardous materials handling and disposal to marine transportation, American Marine and PENCO dip their toes in the water from one end of the state to the other.
Whether building a bridge in Nome or cleaning up the bunker oil leeched from the Windray Barge in Ugashik, both companies have to make things happen in short order.
“Whatever happens, you have to be really reactive,” Tom Ulrich, operations manager for American Marine, said.
His client list includes oil companies, municipalities, fisheries, fish processors, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Alaska Department of Transportation, the Alaska Railroad Corporation, engineering companies and many more. In fact, the company even got a call years ago to clean a swimming pool grate, though they suggested a less specialized company for the job.
In a more typical project, American Marine rebuilt the intake structure on the Ship Creek Reservoir Dam on Fort Richardson, which earned the company an Outstanding Performance Award from the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
During yet another high profile job, the company constructed a cofferdam to encompass the stern of an enormous ocean-based satellite launch ship known as the Sea Launch, an exploratory oil rig retrofitted to launch satellites. Using the dam, Sea Launch operators could work on the propulsion system without going to dry dock. Training makes the difference Though many of the company’s projects involve oil platform repairs and inspections, American Marine gets called for an array of tasks, from salvaging crashed airplanes to fixing cruise ships. Not only do employees need to know the business and train in medical, safety and job-related skills, but they also need to go to the work site with a malleable and innovative attitude.
Sometimes, the logistics alone make the job complex. One time, the company did a repair job on a tour ship that was going across the North Passage.
“When they dropped the dive crew off in North Canada, the Canadian officials were asking, ‘now how did you get here?’” Ulrich recounted.
More telling still, the company regularly proves its prowess by working in the Cook Inlet where the ice and water batter underwater structures, continually forcing inspections and repairs. With currents that can run from five to six knots, divers can only work between tides.
Fortunately, they can rely on the hardy DSV Shamrock to support the crew in this challenging environment. Designed specifically for the Inlet, the Shamrock can hold 11 crew members and has a decompression chamber, winches and all the safety equipment required to surmount the tricky working conditions. Though made for the Inlet, the Shamrock goes to places like Seward, Kodiak, Valdez and Southeast Alaska.
Down the hall, straight into the deep blue sea Sharing the same building in midtown Anchorage, American Marine’s sister company, PENCO, does maintenance, inspections and repairs on oil and gas tanks. People in the oil industry view PENCO as an invaluable tool for avoiding spills, but they also know they can go to PENCO for spill response.
As a recognized oil spill response organization, PENCO can put staff and equipment to work on spills handled by entities like Cook Inlet Spill Response Inc., Alaska Clean Seas and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
“We have been involved in some way, shape or form in virtually every spill clean-up in the Pacific since 1985,” Nall said.
Needless to say, American Marine and PENCO work hand in hand and shore to shore to keep facilities, industries and people safe and sound. They may share the same midtown building, but both companies perform their work in the vast, deep and wild world of Alaska.
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