The February 2026 Website Update
February 2026 Website Update:
This is a true story that occurred in Alaska between the Fall of 1993 and mid-1997. First some background. In the Fall of 1985, I was transferred from San Francisco to Anchorage Alaska as Sohio’s Vice President of Operations. In that capacity I was in charge of all of Sohio’s operations on the North Slope of Alaska including production, construction, production drilling, and exploration drilling in the winter. Also, in my capacity as VP Operations for Sohio I was the primary contact with Alyeska Pipeline, the Operators of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, for the Prudhoe Bay Unit, an organization of companies, that included major owners ARCO, EXXON, and SOHIO and several minor owners. The purpose of the Prudhoe Bay Unit was to operate the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Sohio operated the West side of the field and ARCO operated the East side of the field. During my time in Alaska the PB Unit reached its peak production rate of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day and production started to slowly decline.
In 1989, the President of BP Exploration and Production asked me to come to London to help him with a corporate change process and then in 1990 I became the Director of HR, for the BP Exploration and Production Company.
Then in 1993, I was asked to return to Alaska to help solve a major public relations problem that Alyeska Pipeline had developed. Whistleblowers who worked on the Pipeline would contact staff on the House Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight as well as a Wall Street Journal reporter, every time Alyeska had a problem on the pipeline. I returned, as Alyeska’s Senior Vice President of Public and Government Affairs. I hired Jennifer Ruys from a local Anchorage Alaska TV station where she had been an onscreen reporter and sometime anchor as the Alyeska Director of Public Affairs.
She and I tackled the Alyeska Whistleblower problem. The solution we developed was based on our deciding to inform the public just as soon as something happened on the pipeline that might trigger the whistleblowers to also contact Congress and the press. We did that by putting a press release out every time Alyeska had any kind of problem that might be perceived as serious. That made the problem public quickly, and we also offered to take the local press to the site of the problem, so they could see it, and also so they could see what we were doing about it. This new policy, which was much different than prior policy of not notifying the public at all, was totally supported by Alyeska owners ARCO and Sohio, but bitterly opposed by Exxon. We went ahead with the policy, and we added a Washington DC visit to the staff of the Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight, where we thoroughly explained our new policy. Then Jennifer and I visited the WSJ reporter at his office in San Francisco, who was our nemesis, and explained our new policy. Within about one and a half years of the new policy being implemented Alyeska’s reputation was restored. At about this time I had a visit from one of Exxon’s key managers who admitted that while they didn’t like how we had done it they were very pleased with the result that Alyeska Pipeline’s reputation had been restored.
To me the moral of this story is being totally honest with the public in business is rewarded with a good reputation. And the opposite is also true, that hiding the truth and then being found out, can ruin a company’s reputation needlessly.