The new job
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:29 am
Been out here in the oil fields a little over 3 weeks now, and loving the hell out of it. Naturally I haven't been on much over that time span, other than to run the sims, as I am still getting used to things out here. The first week was training, the second week was getting a feel for things on my own, and by this past week I was rolling along pretty well.
The hours are long, but there is actually a lot of down time. Which is, for the most part, used for sleep. Because you never know when exactly you are going to work, so when you can, you sleep. Often times I will get to a well with a load, and then sit for anywhere from a couple hours to as long as 15 hours waiting to unload. The nice part is, they pay me for sitting. Or more accurately, for sleeping.
It's an around the clock job. You might come off a well at 1 am, find a place to sleep, then get called at 4 am to go get another load. Other times you will get lucky and get to sleep without being bothered, you just never know. Which puts a premium on getting sleep at every available opportunity. Especially if you are on a well and it will be awhile before you get a chance to unload, that way you can be ready to run for another load as soon as you unload.
It's South Texas, so it's hot, even in October. And often humid. Showers are another thing that are at a premium. I can't get near enough of them, sometimes it's two or three days between, just because of the way we have to run. Which makes baby wipes, bottled water, and gold bond powder absolute necessities if you don't want to smell like a dead carp.
Its a dirty job, no doubt about it, but not hard, other than the inconvenience of the sleep and showers. About 70% of the loads are within a 60 mile radius, the other 30% you might go as far away as 150 miles to pick up. Lot of back road driving, not the interstate highway driving I am so used to. And a LOT of dirt road driving. One well on Friday, it was 25 miles down the dirt road, and it's so damned bumpy and dusty you can't do more than about 15 miles an hour, and often less than that. Took me two hours each way just on the dirt portion of the road on that trip. The other hard part on the dirt roads is not getting lost. A lot of the ranches these wells are on are huge, with multiple well sites, with multiple dirt roads going off in different directions. The directions going in usually work well enough, but coming back out, when your 15 or 20 miles in down multiple turns, in the dark at 3am, well that can get interesting. Been more than once I have had to stop, look over the intersection of the dirt road, in the dark, and try to work my directions backwards to make sure I make the correct turn.
If it rains, the roads become muddy, and the wells themselves can become mud pits. One well I was at, I was slogging through ankle deep mud the entire time I was there. I have to unload the sand, which is done by pumping it out through hoses into whichever containers it needs to go in. So I get out, hook up hoses, start the blower, then have to watch my pressure gauges and make sure the hoses don't clog. Typically this about an hour process, and when it's ankle deep mud, you get dirty. Really dirty. Often, it's just dry and dusty, but in either case, you can't help but end up with dirt inside the truck. If it's just dust, that's not too bad. When it's mud, it's worse. It's impossible to keep the inside of the truck clean, you just fight the battle and try to keep the dirt manageable.
The pay is possibly even better than I was led to believe, as I grossed 2700 last week. How can you not love a job that pays like that? I plan to enjoy it while it lasts, and bank as much as I can, because if there is one thing I know about oil in this country, it is that it is always a boom or bust situation. Back in the heart of the recession, WTI traded about 35 a barrel, and no one was drilling at those prices. Drillers need the price of oil to stay above a certain level for drilling to be cost effective. With the next price plunge this will all likely dry up again. It costs about 2 mil to drill a vertical well, and 8 mil to drill a horizontal well (fracking), and all these wells are of the 8 mil variety so these drillers need a reasonable return on the investment.
Typically, we work 3-4 weeks out in the field, then go home for 5-6 days off. This will allow me scenario's where I make sure to take my home time when PEBA has live events, like the winter meetings and especially the draft.
For now, I am going to leave our Sat/Tues sim schedule in place, and will run our sims at the first available time after the sim deadline. As I get to know the job and how things work out here a little better, I may adjust the times if I can figure a reasonable way to make things more dependable and timely.
I'll also probably seek a little help with a few tasks, just to make it easier to keep this ship running. I'll talk to the Board soon about what I need help with and how we can keep things functioning as smooth as possible. But in no case will PEBA be going away, no matter what.
The hours are long, but there is actually a lot of down time. Which is, for the most part, used for sleep. Because you never know when exactly you are going to work, so when you can, you sleep. Often times I will get to a well with a load, and then sit for anywhere from a couple hours to as long as 15 hours waiting to unload. The nice part is, they pay me for sitting. Or more accurately, for sleeping.
It's an around the clock job. You might come off a well at 1 am, find a place to sleep, then get called at 4 am to go get another load. Other times you will get lucky and get to sleep without being bothered, you just never know. Which puts a premium on getting sleep at every available opportunity. Especially if you are on a well and it will be awhile before you get a chance to unload, that way you can be ready to run for another load as soon as you unload.
It's South Texas, so it's hot, even in October. And often humid. Showers are another thing that are at a premium. I can't get near enough of them, sometimes it's two or three days between, just because of the way we have to run. Which makes baby wipes, bottled water, and gold bond powder absolute necessities if you don't want to smell like a dead carp.
Its a dirty job, no doubt about it, but not hard, other than the inconvenience of the sleep and showers. About 70% of the loads are within a 60 mile radius, the other 30% you might go as far away as 150 miles to pick up. Lot of back road driving, not the interstate highway driving I am so used to. And a LOT of dirt road driving. One well on Friday, it was 25 miles down the dirt road, and it's so damned bumpy and dusty you can't do more than about 15 miles an hour, and often less than that. Took me two hours each way just on the dirt portion of the road on that trip. The other hard part on the dirt roads is not getting lost. A lot of the ranches these wells are on are huge, with multiple well sites, with multiple dirt roads going off in different directions. The directions going in usually work well enough, but coming back out, when your 15 or 20 miles in down multiple turns, in the dark at 3am, well that can get interesting. Been more than once I have had to stop, look over the intersection of the dirt road, in the dark, and try to work my directions backwards to make sure I make the correct turn.
If it rains, the roads become muddy, and the wells themselves can become mud pits. One well I was at, I was slogging through ankle deep mud the entire time I was there. I have to unload the sand, which is done by pumping it out through hoses into whichever containers it needs to go in. So I get out, hook up hoses, start the blower, then have to watch my pressure gauges and make sure the hoses don't clog. Typically this about an hour process, and when it's ankle deep mud, you get dirty. Really dirty. Often, it's just dry and dusty, but in either case, you can't help but end up with dirt inside the truck. If it's just dust, that's not too bad. When it's mud, it's worse. It's impossible to keep the inside of the truck clean, you just fight the battle and try to keep the dirt manageable.
The pay is possibly even better than I was led to believe, as I grossed 2700 last week. How can you not love a job that pays like that? I plan to enjoy it while it lasts, and bank as much as I can, because if there is one thing I know about oil in this country, it is that it is always a boom or bust situation. Back in the heart of the recession, WTI traded about 35 a barrel, and no one was drilling at those prices. Drillers need the price of oil to stay above a certain level for drilling to be cost effective. With the next price plunge this will all likely dry up again. It costs about 2 mil to drill a vertical well, and 8 mil to drill a horizontal well (fracking), and all these wells are of the 8 mil variety so these drillers need a reasonable return on the investment.
Typically, we work 3-4 weeks out in the field, then go home for 5-6 days off. This will allow me scenario's where I make sure to take my home time when PEBA has live events, like the winter meetings and especially the draft.
For now, I am going to leave our Sat/Tues sim schedule in place, and will run our sims at the first available time after the sim deadline. As I get to know the job and how things work out here a little better, I may adjust the times if I can figure a reasonable way to make things more dependable and timely.
I'll also probably seek a little help with a few tasks, just to make it easier to keep this ship running. I'll talk to the Board soon about what I need help with and how we can keep things functioning as smooth as possible. But in no case will PEBA be going away, no matter what.