VECO Corporation was an Alaska-based oil pipeline service and construction company until its purchase in September 2007 by CH2M HILL. As of that date, the VECO Corporation ceased to exist. Founded in 1968, the company grew to become a major player in the Alaskan oil industries' support. VECO also was a worldwide player in the oil industry, having divisions in many major oil markets.
On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling eleven million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in United States history.
VECO was responsible for large parts of the spill's clean up, hiring 2,500 workers to clean up the environmental disaster.
EBCA is one of the largest marketers of group insurance plans in the Mid-Atlantic region. And we represent more insurance carriers than anyone else. For you that means one-stop shopping from the largest selection of plans and options to meet your company's needs. If you need group health, life, dental, or disability insurance, or you want to provide your employees with options to purchase voluntary benefits, you need EBCA.
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VECO International, Inc. is the largest oil field services company in Alaska. It modifies oil rigs, supplies support services to drillers, and builds prefabricated modules for oil rigs and mines, in addition to drilling in its own right. It has subsidiaries in three states and has, since the late 1980s, been a major player in the environmental clean-up business.
VECO traces its history to 1968 when William Allen arrived in Alaska. A controversial man with a reputation for his business drive, as well as pro-development activism in politics and public affairs, Allen built VECO's fortunes as the state built its oil revenues. Born in 1937, Allen dropped out of a New Mexico high school at the age of 15. He took a job as a welder's assistant in order to help support his seven brothers and sisters, and by the time he was 23, Allen was supervising welding jobs in Los Angeles. In 1968, he moved north with his Alaskan first wife and began working on the Kenai Peninsula, where oil companies would soon exploit the North Slope oil reserves.
Conditions on the North Slope then were very primitive, though that was rapidly changing. Oil companies had paid the state $900 million for the first lease--an amount more than three times the entire state budget. It was at this time that executives from ARCO approached Allen and encouraged him to go into business with another ARCO employee, William Veltrie, to provide the specialized support services oil drillers required to operate in the inhospitable climate. Allen and Veltrie agreed to the proposal, and in 1969 formed an oil field services company called V-E Construction. The name was soon changed to VECO and the company did well supporting the rapidly expanding industry.
In 1973, VECO and a British company formed a joint venture and bought a Norwegian company that did platform hookups in the North Sea. A year later, after VECO had received its first major contract on the North Slope, Allen bought out Veltrie and sold his interest in the North Sea venture for $2 million. He then used those profits to build his support operation on the North Slope.
At this time it was still unclear whether the oil reserves in Alaska would be developed. Conservationists were against using the reserves, while business owners had not yet made up their minds to move full speed ahead on development. With the worsening oil crisis in mind, Allen decided to put all his money down on the side of the developers. "We bet everything on the North Slope," he later admitted in Alaska Business Monthly.
Though VECO concentrated mainly on supplying oil drillers, Allen began to move the company into actual drilling. With the NANA Regional Corporation--a business that pooled the money of Alaskan natives--he formed a joint venture called United Alaska Drilling, Inc. United Alaska Drilling was profitable, but it was perhaps most notable for the involvement of native peoples who had often been excluded both economically and politically in Alaska. Oil industry watchers credited Allen for drawing native Alaskans into the oil business. Later he sold some of VECO's interest in the drilling business to other native corporations.
At the urging of the company's bankers--Seattle First National, Manufacturer's Hanover Trust, and Interfirst of Dallas--VECO also began to diversify. After reincorporating in 1981 as a holding company called VECO International, Inc., Allen formed several new subsidiaries, including VECO Drilling, Inc., which bought oil drilling rigs in Colorado. Another subsidiary, Vemar, was used to purchase a Houston, Texas, business that refit and modified oil rig platforms.
Vemar, though it had plenty of business, was having trouble. The former owners had bid their contracts too low and the company was losing money. Allen was able to renegotiate some of the contracts and persuaded Penrod Drilling Corporation to buy a share of Vemar to keep it going. In the end, Allen got the work done, a fact which did much to solidify his reputation as a man who made good on his word.
By the early 1980s, perhaps because of Vemar's problems, VECO had become overextended. Faced with debts to banks and unsecured creditors, Allen chose to pay off the unsecured creditors and pay only interest on VECO's loans. The banks, in turn, panicked and froze working capital. In 1982 VECO International; VECO, Inc.; and a utility subsidiary, Norcon, Inc., were forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The proceedings, reportedly the largest such case handled by the Alaska courts up to that time, deeply marked the company. Allen credited his and his company's survival to the support of employees--who offered to loan the company money--and his clients.
VECO emerged from Chapter 11 stronger, if anything, than it had been before. Allen consolidated his business, keeping top management virtually unchanged, and switched to a group of Alaskan banks headed by the National Bank of Alaska. By 1983 VECO had combined revenues of $92 million. In addition, by 1985, VECO had paid off all creditors 100 cents on the dollar except, ironically, for the original banks who settled for a lower rate of payment.
In 1985 the company received a boost from changes in the market. As much of the Alaskan oil industry signed new, higher-cost agreements with labor, VECO and its subsidiaries, with their non-union workforce, were able to move away from service and support, and further into the construction business. In turn, between 1984 and 1987, VECO won the majority of large construction jobs on the North Slope. Among these were ARCO's Lisburne and West Sak projects, Standard Alaska's Endicott job, and Conoco's Milne Point endeavor. Also, VECO was awarded the contract for Alaska's Red Dog zinc mine, marking the company's move into mine construction. By 1987 VECO controlled about half of all North Slope construction. Nevertheless, its Alaskan business was less than booming, and the company was relying on its subsidiaries in different areas--including VECO Drilling in Colorado, Southwest VECO in California, and the Fairbanks utility Norcon--to bring in profits. These subsidiaries helped the company survive while the overall oil industry foundered.
As VECO grew, the company, and Allen, became a force in state politics, sometimes in controversial ways. In 1986, when the governorship and control of the Alaska state Legislature were at stake, Allen saw an opportunity to further his business aims. Leading a group of oil men who were fighting a proposal for new state taxes on the oil industry, Allen lobbied legislators and made campaign contributions to Republican candidates for the state senate. Eventually, he was caught using an employee check-off scheme to funnel $109,000 to five political candidates. The Alaska Public Offices Commission found VECO had made contributions over the legal limit and fined the company $72,000--reduced to $28,000 by the State Supreme Court. Allen had achieved his goal, however. Governor Bill Sheffield--who had accused Allen of unfair labor practices during the election--was defeated and several of Allen's candidates won. After the election, the legislature passed no new oil industry taxes.
Not all the attention VECO received was negative. In 1988, the company helped rescue three California gray whales trapped by newly-formed ice. The whales' plight provoked nationwide concern and many, including then-president Ronald Reagan, mobilized resources to help. VECO donated ice-breaking equipment, including a $3-million-dollar hovercraft which helped break and keep open an escape path for the whales. Afterwards, the story appeared in papers as far away as Florida and in such mass-circulation magazines as People.
In a down economy, employees have fewer opportunities to take a job at another company, but entrepreneurs would be remiss to take their fingers off the pulse of company morale simply because employees have fewer options. "Companies that don't think about [employee retention], that basically rest on their laurels and think 'the economy will take care of us, where are they going to go?' Those are the companies that, as soon as the labor market picks back up, their turnover rates are going to go from 5 percent to 50 percent and it will happen overnight," says Mark Murphy, author of The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention and CEO of Leadership IQ, a Washington D.C.-based executive education firm.
So what's one of the biggest reasons people quit their jobs? "One of the major reasons is being dissatisfied with their supervisor," says Linda Argote, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon and editor-in-chief of Organization Science. And in the cramped confines of a small business, that relationship can create even more of a strain. "In bigger companies there are more opportunities to move to other jobs if you're dissatisfied with a particular supervisor but like the firm, whereas smaller companies may have less options so they run the risk of losing the employee," Argote adds.
On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling eleven million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in United States history.
VECO was responsible for large parts of the spill's clean up, hiring 2,500 workers to clean up the environmental disaster.
EBCA is one of the largest marketers of group insurance plans in the Mid-Atlantic region. And we represent more insurance carriers than anyone else. For you that means one-stop shopping from the largest selection of plans and options to meet your company's needs. If you need group health, life, dental, or disability insurance, or you want to provide your employees with options to purchase voluntary benefits, you need EBCA.
Feel free to browse the site and explore. Sign in to obtain access to different modules within the framework, as well as view the restricted sections of the site.
VECO International, Inc. is the largest oil field services company in Alaska. It modifies oil rigs, supplies support services to drillers, and builds prefabricated modules for oil rigs and mines, in addition to drilling in its own right. It has subsidiaries in three states and has, since the late 1980s, been a major player in the environmental clean-up business.
VECO traces its history to 1968 when William Allen arrived in Alaska. A controversial man with a reputation for his business drive, as well as pro-development activism in politics and public affairs, Allen built VECO's fortunes as the state built its oil revenues. Born in 1937, Allen dropped out of a New Mexico high school at the age of 15. He took a job as a welder's assistant in order to help support his seven brothers and sisters, and by the time he was 23, Allen was supervising welding jobs in Los Angeles. In 1968, he moved north with his Alaskan first wife and began working on the Kenai Peninsula, where oil companies would soon exploit the North Slope oil reserves.
Conditions on the North Slope then were very primitive, though that was rapidly changing. Oil companies had paid the state $900 million for the first lease--an amount more than three times the entire state budget. It was at this time that executives from ARCO approached Allen and encouraged him to go into business with another ARCO employee, William Veltrie, to provide the specialized support services oil drillers required to operate in the inhospitable climate. Allen and Veltrie agreed to the proposal, and in 1969 formed an oil field services company called V-E Construction. The name was soon changed to VECO and the company did well supporting the rapidly expanding industry.
In 1973, VECO and a British company formed a joint venture and bought a Norwegian company that did platform hookups in the North Sea. A year later, after VECO had received its first major contract on the North Slope, Allen bought out Veltrie and sold his interest in the North Sea venture for $2 million. He then used those profits to build his support operation on the North Slope.
At this time it was still unclear whether the oil reserves in Alaska would be developed. Conservationists were against using the reserves, while business owners had not yet made up their minds to move full speed ahead on development. With the worsening oil crisis in mind, Allen decided to put all his money down on the side of the developers. "We bet everything on the North Slope," he later admitted in Alaska Business Monthly.
Though VECO concentrated mainly on supplying oil drillers, Allen began to move the company into actual drilling. With the NANA Regional Corporation--a business that pooled the money of Alaskan natives--he formed a joint venture called United Alaska Drilling, Inc. United Alaska Drilling was profitable, but it was perhaps most notable for the involvement of native peoples who had often been excluded both economically and politically in Alaska. Oil industry watchers credited Allen for drawing native Alaskans into the oil business. Later he sold some of VECO's interest in the drilling business to other native corporations.
At the urging of the company's bankers--Seattle First National, Manufacturer's Hanover Trust, and Interfirst of Dallas--VECO also began to diversify. After reincorporating in 1981 as a holding company called VECO International, Inc., Allen formed several new subsidiaries, including VECO Drilling, Inc., which bought oil drilling rigs in Colorado. Another subsidiary, Vemar, was used to purchase a Houston, Texas, business that refit and modified oil rig platforms.
Vemar, though it had plenty of business, was having trouble. The former owners had bid their contracts too low and the company was losing money. Allen was able to renegotiate some of the contracts and persuaded Penrod Drilling Corporation to buy a share of Vemar to keep it going. In the end, Allen got the work done, a fact which did much to solidify his reputation as a man who made good on his word.
By the early 1980s, perhaps because of Vemar's problems, VECO had become overextended. Faced with debts to banks and unsecured creditors, Allen chose to pay off the unsecured creditors and pay only interest on VECO's loans. The banks, in turn, panicked and froze working capital. In 1982 VECO International; VECO, Inc.; and a utility subsidiary, Norcon, Inc., were forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The proceedings, reportedly the largest such case handled by the Alaska courts up to that time, deeply marked the company. Allen credited his and his company's survival to the support of employees--who offered to loan the company money--and his clients.
VECO emerged from Chapter 11 stronger, if anything, than it had been before. Allen consolidated his business, keeping top management virtually unchanged, and switched to a group of Alaskan banks headed by the National Bank of Alaska. By 1983 VECO had combined revenues of $92 million. In addition, by 1985, VECO had paid off all creditors 100 cents on the dollar except, ironically, for the original banks who settled for a lower rate of payment.
In 1985 the company received a boost from changes in the market. As much of the Alaskan oil industry signed new, higher-cost agreements with labor, VECO and its subsidiaries, with their non-union workforce, were able to move away from service and support, and further into the construction business. In turn, between 1984 and 1987, VECO won the majority of large construction jobs on the North Slope. Among these were ARCO's Lisburne and West Sak projects, Standard Alaska's Endicott job, and Conoco's Milne Point endeavor. Also, VECO was awarded the contract for Alaska's Red Dog zinc mine, marking the company's move into mine construction. By 1987 VECO controlled about half of all North Slope construction. Nevertheless, its Alaskan business was less than booming, and the company was relying on its subsidiaries in different areas--including VECO Drilling in Colorado, Southwest VECO in California, and the Fairbanks utility Norcon--to bring in profits. These subsidiaries helped the company survive while the overall oil industry foundered.
As VECO grew, the company, and Allen, became a force in state politics, sometimes in controversial ways. In 1986, when the governorship and control of the Alaska state Legislature were at stake, Allen saw an opportunity to further his business aims. Leading a group of oil men who were fighting a proposal for new state taxes on the oil industry, Allen lobbied legislators and made campaign contributions to Republican candidates for the state senate. Eventually, he was caught using an employee check-off scheme to funnel $109,000 to five political candidates. The Alaska Public Offices Commission found VECO had made contributions over the legal limit and fined the company $72,000--reduced to $28,000 by the State Supreme Court. Allen had achieved his goal, however. Governor Bill Sheffield--who had accused Allen of unfair labor practices during the election--was defeated and several of Allen's candidates won. After the election, the legislature passed no new oil industry taxes.
Not all the attention VECO received was negative. In 1988, the company helped rescue three California gray whales trapped by newly-formed ice. The whales' plight provoked nationwide concern and many, including then-president Ronald Reagan, mobilized resources to help. VECO donated ice-breaking equipment, including a $3-million-dollar hovercraft which helped break and keep open an escape path for the whales. Afterwards, the story appeared in papers as far away as Florida and in such mass-circulation magazines as People.
In a down economy, employees have fewer opportunities to take a job at another company, but entrepreneurs would be remiss to take their fingers off the pulse of company morale simply because employees have fewer options. "Companies that don't think about [employee retention], that basically rest on their laurels and think 'the economy will take care of us, where are they going to go?' Those are the companies that, as soon as the labor market picks back up, their turnover rates are going to go from 5 percent to 50 percent and it will happen overnight," says Mark Murphy, author of The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention and CEO of Leadership IQ, a Washington D.C.-based executive education firm.
So what's one of the biggest reasons people quit their jobs? "One of the major reasons is being dissatisfied with their supervisor," says Linda Argote, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon and editor-in-chief of Organization Science. And in the cramped confines of a small business, that relationship can create even more of a strain. "In bigger companies there are more opportunities to move to other jobs if you're dissatisfied with a particular supervisor but like the firm, whereas smaller companies may have less options so they run the risk of losing the employee," Argote adds.
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