Oil fields

I was wondering if anybody has ever worked them and during what era. The nephew is thinking about it. When natural gas was being drilled for here a guy asked if I was interested in working in oil drilling. It was during the mid-1980's after Alfred Tech and before Cornell for me so I chose to further my education. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off going for the immediate money.

I had a chance in the '60's to work a rig and also to work in a cotton gin. Did neither and still have all my fingers.

Worked offshore - Off Trinidad coast, Gulf of Mexico and offshore New Jersey back in the late 70's.

I spent 2-1/2 years in the oil fields from 2012-2014 working for Schlumberger. I worked as a field engineer for an open-hole wireline crew, which basically took readings in wells that were just drilled before they put the casing in the well. If he is thinking about working as a roughneck on a drilling rig, it is a lot of work, but the pay is great. Try to get on with a bigger company if safety is a concern. They have so many rules and regulations that you have to almost have someone there to watch you wipe your rear, but they are very very very focused on safety and having as few injuries as possible. That being said, it is a lot like working around equipment on a farm, and sometimes those rules just make things even more unsafe because you have to do something in a whole new way. But I think a bigger company would still be better as far as hours, benefits, time off, etc. Most of the bigger companies worked a 14-7 schedule, 14 days on, 7 days off, and your first 7 days would be night or day shift 12 hours, and the next 7 days would be the opposite. Depending on where you are, you may live in a camp near location, on location, or a hotel near the drilling location. If you work for a service provider, you might be stuck working 24-48+ hours straight without sleep. My longest day was just under 60 hours with no sleep, and I spent hours 50-53 driving back to the shop. Not exactly kosher by the company's rules, but there weren't any hotels around, and I wasn't too keen on sleeping in a work truck. I worked with some people that had been in the oil field since the 70s, and they always joked that the new oil patch was the flower patch compared to the old days. For the most part, you don't have guys with no shirt, smoking cigarettes, wearing cut off jean shorts and a hard hat covered in oil and mud. It is a lot more safety oriented now, and it is a great place for someone young to start their lives off with a good financial standing. I used it to pay off all of my college loans and start a 401k and saved up some stock options. I don't think it is a lifestyle I would want to do for the rest of my life, but it is an experience and will teach a lot of good skills when it comes to hard work in a group and trusting others. There are a lot of dangers, just as you expect when working with such large equipment and holes that extend miles into the ground and are under 1000s of psi of pressure at the surface, but there is a lot in place to keep a person safe, and with common sense and a level head, safety is not a hard thing to achieve. That being said, I did have the tip of my finger crushed by a 300lb tool on a catwalk when one of my coworkers lost his temper and jerked it while I was trying to free it from where it had hung up. But that can happen in a lot of different jobs, and to this day, I am still great friends with that co-worker. I'll stop here before I start writing a memoir of my short time in the oilfield...

Hurst

worked in the oilfield one summer in 1971. The days of the old spudder rigs were just passing & rotary rigs were the new rage in the Appalachians. Learned a lot; don't miss it.

I have worked for an offshore Drilling contractor for 40 years with 5 more to go then retire if the Good Lord allows me to. I have always made a living for my family and kept insurance and related benefits, although wages were not always very good for extended periods due to downturns in the industry I was after the benefits for my family and eventual retirement. During the 6 severe downturns that I have personnaly been through in the business, 1979-78, 1982, 1986-93, 1998-2001, 2008-2010 and including the present downturn in the industry, I have been fortunate in that I kept working, mostly this was because when the downturns came I happened to be working in countries that either were not going to curtail drilling and exploration because of low extraction costs or because they needed the revenues, or both. At the present time the industry is in its largest contraction in 30 years, there have been about 130,000 oilfield hands laid off since November of 2014 in the US alone and at least triple that number world wide, the prospects for a turnaround are not good in the short term unless a major international event impacts oil supply and price. Natural gas drilling is holding its own in the US and in some places even on the increase even though natural gas prices are flat there are plans to export LNG soon. Anyone planning on enetering the business should first understand that no matter how long he or she works in the business they will start off ''temporary'' and remain ''temporary'' their entire carreer, I was given this advice by one of my first supervisors when I first started along with the admonishment to save my money and both tips have served me well over the years. Oil and gas are commodities, subject to price fluctuations and the resultant highs and lows of business models based on production, very much the same as farming, if a person works in the exporation/development sector of the oil and gas business there will be downturns where they stand a good chance of becoming unemployed, at least temporarily. When I first started evryone had a side business, farming, hauling pulpwood, cattle, saw milling, something to do on their off days as well as a fall back job if everything went south. I ran cattle and custom baled for many years to supplement the income and still run cattle. Best things about the business, at least offshore and in remote areas, is little to no communication with or interference from the regional or head office, we handle our business and take care of the rig and thats that, I do not have to listen to nonsense, attend management meetings or take any crap. Maybe it is something a person gets used to but I like the work schedule, over the years I have worked 14/7, 10/5, 7/7, 14/14, 21/21 and 28/28 which I prefer, and have worked since 1979, of course your travel days come out of your 28 but it still amounts to more time home and free to do what you want than a 9-5, 5 days per week job. The best advice I would give any young man looking to start out in this business is the same advice I gave my Sons when they started, go where the job is without complaint, everybody wants to work on the rig that is closest to their home and that is understandable but not practical, the company needs people on all of their rigs and one pays the same as the other, many times when you agree to travel to the worst places to work those are the same places that keep going during downturns.

I started working on drilling rigs just out of highschool in 1965. Worked on them off and on for 30 some years. I had its moments, good times and bad, but made some good money for that era. Worked all positions from floor hand to rig manager( we called them toolpushes till the druggies stole that name) Worst part was you where away from home so much.
Wouldn't want to start over today, too much "safety"and technology has taken over.

I worked them for 14 months. August of 13- November of 14. I worked 90+ hours a week and worked as many days as the company needed. My longest wait 57 days in a row. I had a day off then went for a 19 day hitch then had a week off. It was long hours, long drives, long nights but I made enough to buy an engagement ring and a nice down payment on a truck among several other things. It put to much stress on my relationship to continue working them. Looking back the money was twice what I make now but also 3xs the hours. I miss it and I don't. If you are young single and don't mind being gone do it and do it as long as you can. It pays off. If you value friends relationships and family time stay away.

I went to college became a teacher taught for 4 years and got into a natural gas plant in ohio where the current boom is taking place... love it compared to teaching pay is much better as well..

In 1971 I had a chance to go to the Oil fields and work my way up from Rough Neck. I did not go. I made a right turn and headed to the office of a Major Natural Gas Company. I retired in 2011.The 39 years 8 months..
In 1971 a gentleman explained that it would serve me well to take every course the Corporation offered and never forget how to work like the farming back ground I was born into.

Yes i got sucked into the PATCH , Back in 77 on the first round around here in the Clinton formation . And old friend begged me to come to work for him and run his oil field service co. He had two dozers , two water trucks one lowboy outfit and a backhoe and one welder . He told me how much MONEY i would make . HE also had a diesel engine rebuild service and he was swamped with that work. Well like and IDIOT i went to work for him . We built lease roads , drilling location, insalled pipe lines, reclaimed locations moved drilling rigs , pulled Frac teams in and out of locations hauled water both fresh and pit water , filled frac tanks set up tank batterys . pulled trucks in and out of drilling locations . I was never more then fifty miles from the house but there were days that i did not get home for two to four days . catch a cat nap in the seat of the dozer or on the hood or in a dog house on a rig next to a screaming v12 or v16 Detroit . When i was at the house i never got a full nights sleep as the phone would never stop ringing with calls that we need water trucks or we need a dozer NOW . I was there for three days and i was out with the big dozer building a drilling location and when i got back to the shop as i pulled in i see a guy working on my personal pick up , both doors are open the hood is up and he just about ready to start drilling a hole in the back of the cab to install antennas , i came unglued on him , he was going to mount two company radios and a mobile telephone . Made him build a mount that went into the stake pockets of the bed , So between the company phone that was in my office the two radio's in the truck and the mobile phone in the truck my HOME phone and a pager i had no piece something was going off 24-7 . Only took eight months for me to run the white flag up . I had had enough called off sick and went looking for a truck and trailer and bought a semi dump outfit and went on the road for four years when another fried conned me back into the patch to run his service co. in the patch as a full partner and we put a driver on my truck hauling pipe from the mills to our stock and supply yard . There i was in charge of all trucks all the dozers all the frac tanks 380 of them all the back hoes on rubber or tracks all the service rigs all the trenchers and all the welder all the mechanics all the drivers and operators i was the one that had to do all the buying of equipment and trucks do the hiring of drivers operators and mechanics. BUT this time there was NO giving out my home phone number there was NO company radio in my own pick up and my pick up was NOT used for company business . But there were still days i had to be in the field wallowing in the mud the rain the cold and the snow . Never minded it when it was warm out . One Sunday i got called out to run dozer on a rig move up by Eire Pa and that day turned into a nightmare , the rig was way back in about 4000 feet off the road , the lease road was a mess this was in mid Nov. , There were two D6D's to make the move with both with winches one winch was Hyster and the other was a Carco . The one guy that was going to run one of the dozers did not know how to use a Carco so i took that one . He could not grade ( and he called himself a cat skinner ) I had to dress the lease road and i cut some drainage ditches to get the standing water out and we started to make the move . We got for loads out with out tomuch trouble when the rain started and from then on things went down hill fast and the other guy on the dozer could NOT work in tandem with me All he wanted to do is rip and tear , i lot track on how many times he broke his winch line and he was down to less them fifty feet from a fullspool of around 360-380 feet . By noon the rain turned to a driving snow storm and you could not see a hundred feet . There was no more hook on to something and pull it it was now line out , set in and drag it to you about 250-300 feet at a time . When we started this move i wanted to get the rig out first but was over ruled by the one rig owner . We started this move around 7 Am and it was 1:30 Am when the rig hit the entrance way to the lease road and they were digging the mud off of it before they could go down the road with it . Eddy the rig owner wanted to now move the dozers down to the new location and and start DRAGGING it in and get set up . I told him that he was more then welcome to do that but WITH OUT ME . As i had had enough of his Circus and i was cold wet hungry and extremely and exhausted and have a three and a half hour drive home .

My dad was a well tender for Commodore in the 80s into the 90s and we did a lot of work for Castle and Range when I was in high school. Not sure what company is still there that he does a lot of work for.

You would think they would learn to drill when the mud isn't butt crack deep to a tall giraffe.

We killed 3 single axle dumps building a road across a swamp. It was so bad we were knocking trees down,to dump the rock on top of, or it would just disappear. The gas company bought the rock out of an old sewer plant and later had to have someone else go in and pull it back up. Too much mercury in it.

yes been working in the patch for over 30 years already. started roughneck in 1983 , derrick for 7 years. then drilling in 1990 for seven years. then started top drive technition, still at it. work in shop as mechanic also . very bad time to start in patch now as absolutely no work . everything is at a standstill. the work now a days is not as much bull work with all the technology. but its still hard work, rain, mud, snow, cold, or hot you have to work. you can be running for 12 hrs. straight , no such thing as a coffee break.