Alaska crane an inspiration to the oilfield support industry: company enters market in downturn with new business model and equipment.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Oil & Gas

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When one thinks of a fleet of cranes, one envisions a thriving economy, progress, construction, and the like. One doesn't necessarily see the Alaska oil patch in this scenario. On a closer look, though, Calista Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary STG Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary Alaska Crane emerge as contenders. After all, oil patch maintenance is ongoing, regardless of the price of oil, and exploration and development have not stopped completely. Services and support are still needed and, in that scenario, cranes are essential pieces of needed equipment.

Even so, as the price of oil continues to stay low the oil patch continues to contract and economize. Many oilfield service and support companies are looking outside the industry for work, and there are few organizations entering the field. Not so with the Calista's crane and construction subsidiaries, which are well-known for their contributions in the construction of wind farms, bulk fuel tank farms, bridges, power plants, and big buildings in Alaska.

In April, when practically nobody wanted to talk about work in the Alaska oil patch and many companies were suffering in the downturn, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alaska Crane Director of Business Development David Myers, Project Development Manager Erik Reed, and Operations Manager Luke Hough. They are excited about the opportunities on the North Slope and the oil patch and across Alaska, for that matter. They are implementing a new business model on the North Slope and offering up new ways to solve problems, better ways of doing things, and opportunities for companies to spend less money to get more done.

New Ops Office

In January Alaska Crane opened an operations office and took residence at sister company Brice Equipment's compound in Dead-horse. This facility includes a nine-acre pad for laydown, with plans to expand by an additional five acres, and twenty-one thousand square feet of office and shop space. It was a natural fit to partner with one of their sister companies under Calista while deploying a new business model to the area: taxi crane services. Alaska Crane started the taxi crane service in 2004, and it has proven successful, so in this downturn economy they decided to offer it on the North Slope.

There was a soft startup last October when the company had a project-based presence. In January they brought up more cranes and hired more people so that cranes could be dispatched...