In the mid to late 1990’s, as North Slope producers were developing new satellite oil fields such as North Star and Alpine, it became clear to pipeline companies and labor in Alaska that unless they mobilized training efforts, they were facing a labor shortage.

The North Slope Contractors Association, led by Mr. Scott Eliason, then President of Houston Contractors and the four pipeline trades developed joint pipeline training exercises in Fairbanks, Alaska to prepare Alaska pipeline workers for work being planned at Prudhoe Bay and other adjacent oilfields.  Those initial private sector efforts by pipeline companies in Alaska and organized labor eventually led to a public private effort to build the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center.

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In late 2003, the late Senior Senator Ted Stevens and Senator Lisa Murkowski included language in the Alaska Pipeline Act to assist with the “design and construction of a pipeline training center in Fairbanks, Alaska”.   With support from Labor and Industry, the Fairbanks Interior Delegation, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor’s Office and Assembly, the Alaska Legislature and support from Governors Knowles, Murkowski, Palin and Parnell, the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center has become an important regional training center for Interior Alaska.