wealth of traditional knowledge, she says, UIC companies are working to support environmentally sound and culturally sensitive oil and gas activities in the Arctic. According to UMIAQ, it’s a way of business that will help preserve Alaska’s lands, resources, and Native ways of life for future generations.
Preservation and Development The push to preserve the Last Frontier’s lands and traditions while simultaneously developing its resources is a common theme among the state’s Alaska Native Corporation oil and gas ventures. At Kakivik, where Schoffmann says safety is the number one priority, responsible development is top of mind. “Our work helps to ensure that new pipelines and facilities are built according to the design specifications and quality required,” the company’s president says. “In addition, once in service, we provide labor, processes, and equipment to ensure that corrosion is not only
industrial control equipment manufacturers, boasting more than thirty-five years of experience. GIS Oilfield Contractors, a Louisiana-based division of NANA Development Corporation, also operates fabrication facilities and construction services for both onshore and offshore plants. When it comes to maintaining equipment and operating plants, companies owned by Alaska Native Corporations continue to play a key role. There’s Alutiiq Oilfield Solutions, LLC. —a general contractor specializing in industrial coatings and oilfield rig matting—owned by Afognak Native Corporation subsidiary Alutiiq, LLC. There’s Doyon Drilling, Inc. and Doyon Oil Field Services, Inc., both subsidiaries of Doyon Limited, and Nordic-Calista Services, a drilling company formed as a joint venture partnership between Nordic Well Servicing and Calista Corporation in 1985. Olgoonik Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of the Olgoonik Corporation, provides everything from marine, air, and land logis-
the goals of economic opportunity and preserving our way of life requires compromise, diligence, creative thinking, and open communications.” One example: UMIAQ’s Stakeholder Engagement and Community Relations department. Shake says the department, which provides necessary logistics and support services, has seen high demand because of its rich local knowledge. It’s a knowledge that, according to Shake, the oil and gas industry “is learning to respect.” It seems to be paying off, for both UMIAQ, its parent company, and the industry as a whole. While Shake points to high demand for her company’s services, producers continue to herald positive progress on new North Slope developments. Work continues at Point Thomson, and ConocoPhillips says development plans at several different North Slope sites total about $2 billion. BP says it has plans for about $1 billion in new North Slope investment over the next five years.
“Our work helps to ensure that new pipelines and facilities are built according to the design specifications and quality required. In addition, once in service, we provide labor, processes, and equipment to ensure that corrosion is not only monitored and managed but prevented.”
—Ben Schoffmann President and CEO, Kakivik Asset Management LLC
monitored and managed but prevented.” It’s a vital service for companies operating within Alaska’s fragile and valuable Arctic environment. As it stands, oil and gas development projects are subject to a litany of permitting and environmental requirements, and Schoffmann says making sure projects operate within those boundaries is key to the industry’s continued success. “Several very highly publicized recent events show that when oil and gas get outside the system [pipelines, processing plants, tanks, drill rigs, etc.], nothing good happens,” Schoffmann says. “As we like to say, our best advertising is that we keep our customers out of the headlines.” While Kakivik works to maintain the oil and gas industry’s infrastructure, other Alaska Native corporation-owned ventures work to supply it. Dowland-Bach, Inc., a subsidiary of Koniag, Inc., is one of Alaska’s foremost 138
tics to infrastructure, downhole services, and on-site personnel. And Peak Oilfield Services, a longstanding Alaska oilfield support company, was acquired by Bristol Bay Native Corporation last year.
Valuable Experience At UMIAQ and other UIC companies, Shake says that experience goes hand-inhand with the desire to protect Alaska’s environment via responsible exploration and development. The corporation has more than 2,500 Iñupiat shareholders, the majority of whom call Barrow home, and the communications manager says the company sought to balance exploration and development with its shareholders’ customary subsistence ways of life. “To survive in the harsh Arctic environment, our people have relied on their intimate knowledge of their environment and the values of sharing and cooperation,” Shake says. “We recognize that finding balance between
Optimistic Future The plans—along with talk of an Alaska LNG project—leave Alaska Native Corporation-owned oil and gas ventures optimistic about the future. “We are excited for the future, as recent new investment spurred on by improvements in our fiscal tax structure show that there is still more potential and more opportunity for Alaska’s oil and gas business,” Schoffmann says. In Nikiski, LoSciuto says the Rig Tenders Dock and AES Response Operations are also preparing to take advantage of new growth throughout the industry—and the new challenges it presents for their customers. “We saw what their needs were and we tried to make some solutions to meet those needs,” LoSciuto says. R Freelance journalist Kirsten Swann writes from Anchorage.
Alaska Business Monthly | September 2014 www.akbizmag.com