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Pinedale Online > News > October 2007 > Inside tour of the EnCana man-camp

Ensign EnCana Camp. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Ensign EnCana Camp

Concession Room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Concession Room
Concession area of the dining room-kitchen complex. Workers can grab anything they want from these coolers: sandwiches, drinks, fruit, chips, desserts, baked goods, all wrapped and ready to throw in a pack and go.

Steaks for dinner. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Steaks for dinner
Rollie, from Salem, Oregon, BBQs up steaks for dinner Wednesday night.

Lounge area with big screen TV. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Lounge area with big screen TV
The recreation complex has rooms with comfortable chairs and couches, big-screen TVs, card tables, laundry room, internet room, meeting room and snack area.

Proposed Jonah Mancamp. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Proposed Jonah Mancamp
Artist rendering of the layout for the proposed EnCana Jonah Field Workforce Facility. The fenced compound will sit on approximately 20 acres adjacent to the southern end of the production area. A security station will monitor traffic in and out of the complex.

Big Piney Camp. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
Big Piney Camp
Inside tour of the Big Piney EnCana man-camp
Big Piney Ensign/EnCana worker camp
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
October 18, 2007

EnCana Oil & Gas hosted a tour of their Big Piney worker camp facility for media and invited community members. The tour was in response to some public concerns about EnCana’s request to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to construct and operate a 350-person worker camp just south of their natural gas operations in the Jonah Field.

The purpose of this tour was to give the media and invited community representatives a chance to see first-hand what these camp facilities are like on the inside.

The EnCana camp is operated by Ensign, a company which supplies the labor to EnCana for the drill rigs, flow back crews and frac operations for their natural gas drilling activities. The worker camp is currently located in the privately-operated Mountain Village Parks man-camp just south of Big Piney. The initial facility will be constructed by moving that part of their camp facilities out of Mountain Village Parks onto a 20.5 acre parcel of open sagebrush terrain on BLM-managed land under a special use lease permit. See the links below for more information about the controversy over this proposal.

The worker camp facilities are modular units that provide for the basic living, sleeping, dining and recreation needs of the employees. The buildings are built on skids which makes them portable and relatively easy to move from one location to another and quick to set back up again. They are designed to be moved and be able to interconnect so they can be arranged in a variety of ways on the ground. In order to make bigger internal space areas, several units can be attached together to make a larger open room, such as is needed for the dining room and kitchen area. The facility is staffed and operated 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. The facilities are drug- and alcohol-free environments with strict camp rules. Anyone breaking the rules, especially the ones for drugs and alcohol, are terminated from employment with the company.

Facilities include dorms, kitchen cafeteria area, recreation room with exercise equipment, lounge areas with big screen TVs, an internet room with computers and a printer (the whole complex also has wireless internet access), and laundry facilities.

The camp offers workers catered hot meals including hamburgers, chili, French fries, an extensive salad bar, and desserts (they were grilling steaks on an outside BBQ for a soon-to-arrive crew when we did the tour). Ensign contracts with Arctic Catering to run their food-service operations. In addition to the prepared meals hot off the grill, the dining room has multiple self-serve coolers around the room filled with pre-made sandwiches (beef, chicken, turkey, PPJ), enchiladas, burritos, hot wings, fresh fruit, chips, desserts & baked goods, juices, soft drinks, Gatorade, fruit drink pouches, regular and chocolate milk, and bottled water. Workers can grab as much or many of these they want. A sign taped to the cooler glass reads, “Take as much as you want, just eat what you take.”

Workers who live in this camp work long hours, 12-hour/day rotating shifts, and long work weeks (7 days on/7 days off). They make from about $22 per hour on the lower pay scale end up to about $40-$50 per hour on the high end. Comments we heard from workers during the tour were all positive about life in the complex.

Proposed EnCana Jonah Field Workforce Facility
The proposed workforce facility (commonly called a "man-camp") will sit on approximately 20 acres just south of the Jonah Field. The camp will have dorm and sleeper buildings, a kitchen and dining area, and a rec center. The plan design includes space for an outside basketball court and baseball diamond or outdoor recreation area. The camp area will have a perimeter chain link fence, with a security guard check-in station at the main entrance. The camp will get drinking water from a potable water well near the site. Waste water and effluent will be treated in a treatment plant. Electricity will be provided by generators. No alcohol or illegal drugs will be allowed on the premises.

Public tour of EnCana Worker Camp on October 25th:
EnCana will be hosting a tour of this man-camp for the public on Thursday, October 25th. Transportation will be provided from Pinedale via Sublink Stage shuttle. Pinedale participants are asked to meet at the Sublette County Visitor Center at 11:00 AM. Big Piney participants meet at the mancamp at noon.

Directions to Big Piney Worker Camp: Drive two miles south of Big Piney on US 189 to the Mountain Village Parks camp on the east side of the highway (on the left if coming from Big Piney). After turning in, veer to the right and follow the parking lot driveway around to the left around the buildings. Park on the south side of the buildings, on the southwest side of the complex. You should be in the section with the white trailers with blue stripes on the buildings. Lunch will be provided in the second building complex in from the west, on the south end, in the dining room.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, October 24 to Paul Ulrich with EnCana at 307-260-6017 or paul.ulrich@encana.com

Photos by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!



Related Links
  • EnCana defends man camp - (By Alecia Warren, Pinedale Roundup, October 18, 2007)
  • Opinions Voiced At Meetings Regarding BLM Mancamp - By Trey Wilkinson, Sublette Examiner, October 18, 2007)
  • EnCana man-camp proposal meeting in Big Piney - (By Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online, October 13, 2007)
  • KPIN 101.1 Audio file about EnCana mancamp - (1:35 min mp3 file, 287K)

  • Salad Bar. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Salad Bar
    The salad bar has a good selection and variety of fresh foods.

    Food Service and drinks. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Food Service and drinks
    Workers can get fresh salads, chili, soup, soft drinks and hot meals here. Pivoting slightly to the right from where the photographer is standing gets to the serving window in the next photo to get hot food from the kitchen.

    Dourthea in the kitchen. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Dourthea in the kitchen
    Dourthea Mason, from Lusk, Wyoming, serves hot food from the kitchen. She says she likes working in the camp kitchen, and the pay is great! Camp food services are catered by EnCana & Ensign with Arctic Catering.

    Rollie cooking steaks. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Rollie cooking steaks
    Rollie again cooking those steaks for dinner... He said the guys like "meat and potatoes."

    Grab and Go Food. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Grab and Go Food
    Workers can grab a wide variety of food to take with them for lunch or snacks.

    Sandwiches and more. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Sandwiches and more
    There is plenty of variety of food to grab for lunch.

    Hot Wings & Egg Salad. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Hot Wings & Egg Salad
    This shelf had hot wings and egg salad sandwiches ready to go.

    Drink Cooler. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Drink Cooler
    The drink cooler has milk, juices and bottled water.

    Juices and Milk. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Juices and Milk

    Fresh Fruit. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Fresh Fruit
    Fresh fruit is also available in the dining area.

    Bags of Chips. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Bags of Chips
    The dining area also has boxes full of bags of chips, ready to grab.

    Card tables. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Card tables
    The recreation building has tables for playing cards, eating a snack, or just sitting around talking.

    Lounge area. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Lounge area
    Lounge area in the rec room with another big screen TV. This is the same room as the previous picture, showing a closer view of the TV area behind those white card tables.

    Snack area. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Snack area
    The rec area has a microwave and munchies available.

    Exercise and watch TV. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Exercise and watch TV
    The exercise room also has a TV.

    Exercise equipment. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Exercise equipment
    Equipment includes treadmills, stair steppers and bikes.

    Computer and Internet Room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Computer and Internet Room
    The Internet Room has multiple PC internet computers available for use by the workers. There is also a printer in the room to print out items. the man-camp complex also has wireless internet, so workers can also use their laptops from anywhere in the buildings, including their dorm rooms.

    Large laundry room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Large laundry room
    Main laundry room situated in the recreation building.

    Main Washers. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Main Washers
    Sign on the wall says, "No greasy clothes in washing machines." There is no money required to operate these machines.

    Dryers in laundry room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Dryers in laundry room
    Dryers in the main laundry room. These are in addition to smaller laundry rooms in the dorm buildings. Extra blankets sit ready to grab on top of the dryers.

    Double Bed Room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Double Bed Room
    There are never two people in here at the same time, however. When one occupant is working, the other who shares the room is away on his off days. When he comes back, the other "roommate" is gone home, so each occupant gets the room to himself while he is there. Restrooms and showers are in the hall in a communal area (separate for men and women).

    Double Bed Room 2. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Double Bed Room 2
    Another angle view of the double bed room.

    Double room closet area. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Double room closet area
    Closet area for the double bed rooms. A TV can go on the top shelf.

    MIrror and towel rack. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    MIrror and towel rack
    Double bed room has a personal mirror and towel rack for each occupant. Furnishings are sparse, but the rooms are clean and comfortable. Bedding, towels and blankets are provided, along with housekeeping services.

    Closet space. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Closet space
    Closet area in the single bed room.

    Single Bed Room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Single Bed Room
    This is a single bed room in the dorm building.

    Dorm Hallway. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Dorm Hallway
    Hallway in the dorm building.

    First Aid Station. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    First Aid Station
    A first-aid station is centrally located in the hallway of the dorm building, near the restrooms. The clipboard on the hook is a place for residents to write down any maintenanceor repair issues that need attention from the maintenance staff.

    Drinking Water. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Drinking Water
    A drinking water station is located in the dorm hallway.

    Dorm laundry room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Dorm laundry room
    The dorm buildings also have small laundry rooms (which are in addition to the larger laundry room in the recreation building.)

    Small laundry room. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Small laundry room
    Dryers in the smaller laundry room in one of the dorm buildings. (No quarters required to use these machines.)

    Aboveground utilities. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Aboveground utilities
    Because the camp is portable, the essential utility services run in cables and pipes above ground. Everything is designed to be quickly connected and disconnected, and to withstand exposure to the weather.

    Risers. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Risers
    The building units are modular and set on risers when first placed.

    Modular units fit together. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Modular units fit together
    The modular buildings can be ganged together to make larger buildings with interconnecting rooms. This is the kitchen-dining complex. Note, there's cook Rollie out on tha back deck of the kitchen barbequing steaks for dinner.

    Portable electric. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Portable electric
    Utility services are designed to be functional and mobile.

    Boardwalk Sidewalks. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Boardwalk Sidewalks
    Wooden boardwalk sidewalks, with no-skid treadmats, inter-connect the buildings, to keep people from walking in the mud and snow, and also lessening the impact of foot traffic on the ground. (In the case of this facility on private land, surface disturbance isn't so much of an issue, but it will be for the proposed camp out in the BLM location in the sagebrush near the Jonah Field.)

    On skids. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    On skids
    The modular units are built on skids so they can be easily moved.

    Other mancamp trailers. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Other mancamp trailers
    Other companies besides EnCana and Ensign have modular trailer buildings at the Mountain Village mancamp facility to house workers.

    Last look at those steaks. Photo by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online.
    Last look at those steaks
    We can't capture the BBQ smell with a picture, but here's one last look at what the guys were getting for dinner the day of our tour.
    Pinedale Online > News > October 2007 > Inside tour of the EnCana man-camp

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