Originally Posted by
MSObelle
There are only officially 5 or so perm residents in Prudhoe Bay, so no, there were no people they could hire. 1981 is during the beginning of the construction boom up there.
As for a building that Alaska would use for its employees, I am not aware of one up there as described in the annual report. They fly the combi planes up there and the flight is a stop on the way to Barrow.
Alaska flies into Prudhoe with flights that are normally filled with oilfield employees and support staff. Tourism exists, but those numbers are small. For any villagers, they typically fly Era. BP/Conoco Phillips has their own charter company that flies the majority of the workers to/from the north slope.
You might look up deadhorse in wikipedia for your answers. The town isn't intended as a permanent residential establishment. It exists to support the oil infrastructure. You cannot get to the ocean unless you have a badge to get on the BP lease or you have a boat and can get into one of the rivers and access it that way.
The ConocoPhillips/BP shuttle service between Anchorage and Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse Airport is actually owned and operated by ConocoPhillips with a mix of B737-700 and B737-200 aircraft. The older B737-200s are on their way to being retired. And in case one is interested, they do not sell seats for these flights to the general public.
ConocoPhillips also operates the B737-200 into another airport on the North Slope as well which they just happen to own: Kuparuk, which is a gravel airstrip that is currently being paved in order to facilitate the operation of B737-700 aircraft (the B737-200 aircraft have gravel kits which enable them to land at this airport).
Back in the day, MarkAir operated B737-200 Combi aircraft into both Barrow and Deadhorse, which is one of the ways I traveled to both locations. The other way was in the jumpseat of a Convair 580 operated by Era Aviation on a charter into Deadhorse.