"A public service announcement for those considering relocating for a job in the oilfield: To be sure, there is money to be made in the oil producing regions of West Texas, South Texas and North Dakota. To be sure, as well, there are groups from the well intentioned to the full blown idiots who come to the shale play areas to get rich quick.
As it happens from time to time, when one wears the uniform of the seasoned oilfield hand, he is inundated at a convenience store by questions bordering on the absurd. Someone once said: there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who ask them.
So if you are not from a shale play area, and you are thinking of uprooting the family and coming here, or to one of the afore mentioned places, please let me take this opportunity to offer a public service.
First off, the oilfield of today is not the oilfield of the 1980’s. If you have a drug problem or if you just partake occasionally…..well you are **** out of luck. Let me go over your head here: Sarbanes Oxley, yeah that goes over most people’s head.
Sarbanes Oxley is an insider trading law that has so overstepped its bounds that it governs every aspect of the way a publically traded company does business. That includes insurance and drug testing. So how does that affect a non-publically traded company, well, if you want to do business with a publically traded company, then the company that you work for must comply with Sarbanes Oxley as well. In the oilfield there is a term called “the majors” and if a company is a “major” then you can bet they are publically traded.
Drugs = no job, not even at the fast food place. And there is a system in place called ISNetworld that will make sure that no contractors who do not comply will work for a publically traded company. If you can’t work for a major, then your company will make no money and not pay the employees worth a ****.
The next thing you need to know: experience. If you don’t know anything about the oilfield, then you will not get hired. You will make better wages in the fast food and retail business than you will make back home, but you will not get rich quick, or ever.
Welders: if you own your own welding truck and your welds can pass an X-Ray test, come on down; however if you don’t own your own equipment or are a shop welder, then stay at home in your union job. The shop is never going to pay you enough to buy your own rig, because if they do, you will quit and go to work in the field and you might make a little more money in the short term, but you will more than likely be in a dead end job.
Heavy equipment operators: if you possess a Class A commercial driver’s license, then come on down and make some cash, but if you can’t haul you own equipment, you are out of luck. Other truck drivers, you had better have a Class A with a tanker and hazmat, but at least a tanker. Class B: if you don’t have both tanker and hazmat, then have fun driving that concrete truck, cause that is all you will be doing down here.
On the bright side, there are plenty of concrete truck jobs, because they don’t pay. If you are educated in a highly specialized field, you might do well, but if you move down here and don’t know the difference between a pipe wrench and a crescent wrench, you need not apply. If you don’t know what any of these terms are, STAY HOME: roustabout, drilling rig, roughneck, frac, pressure pumping unit, CDL, DOT, pumpjack, location, H2S, JSA, wireline, hot oil truck, treater truck, pulling unit, kill truck, downstream, upstream, midstream, Chemtrec and the list goes on and on, but if you got lost with this list, STAY HOME!
Oh and then there is the cost of living…..RV Space $1000 per month, and you choices are RV space or under the bridge. Be careful before you leave home…..You may not find what you are looking for here, however if you don’t have a job in a few weeks, then you ain’t looking!"
We saw the crowds in North Dakota two years ago and again coming across Canada. They were booming, but I've never needed money that badly!
Ed Winkle;
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