Anchorage-Based Business Claims Halliburton Poached Oil-Field Work.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, January, 2000 by Spiess, Ben

Jan. 23--Anchorage company Petredat once had it good on the North Slope.

Ten years ago, the firm developed a compact device that could slide down oil-well holes and collect temperature and pressure data during specialized work to boost production. Arco Alaska Inc. engineers hailed the tool as a breakthrough, and the device was credited with helping enhance the mighty Kuparuk field, the Slope's -- and nation's -- second-largest oil field.

This specialized tool won Petredat about $1 million a year in work.

But in the past 18 months, Petredat's work has dried up -- in part because of a slowdown on the Slope and in part because of competition from Texas-based Halliburton Co., the world's largest oil field service company.

Using the...

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