In-state and out-of-state oil workers: Alaskan shares expertise on Web site.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: OIL & GAS

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A woman who left teaching behind for a job in the oil industry credits her time working in the North Slope fields with helping her develop a new career. Now, Mary Whitehurst is sharing her knowledge and experience on www.alaskapipe linejobinfo.com, a job-hunting Web site she's developing.

She started the enterprise in response to people's questions about how she'd learned the ropes herself, and says she used the pipeline wording because research shows it to be one of the most common searches.

HOT SITE FOR A COLD PLACE

The site receives more than 10,000 visits a month and she's heard from thousands of wannabe Slope workers, so her instinct to teach others what she knows has become almost a second job. She's also compiling an online work newsletter, "North Slope Insider," with subscribers so far surpassing 2,000. A recent issue featured openings in loading, logistics, welding, and customer and administrative service.

Mary still collects hiring tips from people she knew on the Slope, reads industry publications and makes calls to find out practical advice for interested job hunters. Still, "I'm not an HR professional," she said. So far she's been functioning as an independent agent, dispensing the kind of insider advice that's often so hard to get, especially in one place and about areas still very remote to most people.

Energy company field jobs inspire a range of curiosities. To some extent, the oil field camps, since they're out of sight to most people, invoke a chapter of Alaska's history that resounds with drive and adventure. But it's also about making a better living wage, plus some accommodations could hardly be called hardscrabble.

According to a study for the nonprofit Alaska Gas and Oil Association (AGOA), the industry generates 12 percent of private-sector jobs in Alaska and 21 percent of the private-sector payroll. Oil and gas activity creates an estimated 41,744 jobs--more than 9 percent of all employment and 11 percent of all wages--and boasts the highest average wage in the state. The average primary company, it reported, pays a monthly wage of $12,737--3.5 times higher than the statewide average of $3,627.

Steve Rinehart, spokesman for BP Exploration (Alaska Inc.), said the company has about 2,000 employees in Alaska, about half of them on the North Slope. Some workers are assigned to the Slope, working a rotation, and work there all or almost all the time. Some are assigned in town and work there almost all the time. And some are "Slope-assigned," working there much of the time, but also in town, depending on the demands of a given project--a well being drilled, for example. Slope-based is made up of skilled technicians, including operators and maintenance or special-skill techs. That totals about 870. BP also has numerous jobs in engineering and management based...