are you in Williston as well?
I just landed a job making $120k/year with zero living expenses
If I stick with it and work hard, I could be promoted to a position in 2-3 years that earns $250k+
Republican States Blow
- Thread starter Jimdamick
- Start date
I just landed a job making $120k/year with zero living expenses
If I stick with it and work hard, I could be promoted to a position in 2-3 years that earns $250k+
UncleBuck
Well-Known Member
wow.
the same guy who thinks that black people single-handedly create and perpetuate the problems they face is now trying to substitute his racist thoughts into someone else's head and blame all the failings of republican leadership on black people.
funny, i never though althor was racist until very recently. this just confirms it.
That is awesome, but don't count your eggs before they hatch, if the price of a barrel of oil goes below $70-80 you will be laid off faster than you can say North Dakota is a Shit hole. I know the predictions of how much oil can be found in the Bakken seem to indicate good times forever, but take it from someone who grew up in a oil family, seen it all happen before.
Good luck to you and stay safe on those roads.
heckler73
Well-Known Member
And what kind of "job" is this which pays $120k/yr to start?
Pretty much any of the "roughneck" jobs.
Used to be a day when the "Worm" (Old school roughneck talk for the lowest paid man on the rig), ran the wireline, the cat head, the air chugger, and learned to throw the spinning chain. All things that new people on rigs have no idea what they even are. We used to run 4 man crews, 1 driller, 1 derrick hand, 1 worm and a motor hand. 12 hour shifts 20 days on 3 days off. I made $18 an hour working on the rigs in 1978. Got either 64 hours of overtime per paycheck or 28 hours. Got an extra $200 a month if no one got killed or lost an appendage, rarely got those though, people got fucked up lots.
Seen a derrick hand jump out of the derrick, shattered legs and pelvis and spine. Watched a pump swab go through a guys torso, guts and blood everywhere, guy lived for 40 minutes basically cut in half. Myself got pulled into the chain one day and broke all of my fingers and my wrist, I got lucky. Had the tail rip off the spinning chain just as I threw it and got slapped by 12 pound chain in the face about 4 times, knocked my ass silly. Watched a guy set down 30 tons of drill collar on a steel toe boot, lost all his toes. Had an angle grinder explode and cut my knee cap in half. Watched a drill pipe ill set in the chain hook break off and fall off 5the edge of the drilling floor into the sub below striking the Motor hand that was nippling up the BOP. Head was crushed to Mush. Watched a guy drop a 5 pound hammer down a 12,000 foot hole just as we pulled the bit. took 6 weeks to get that hammer out, cost them millions.
The rigs now-a-days are much better. Now the secretaries are the ones getting hurt from carpal tunnel.
Pinworm
Well-Known Member
Budsmoker87 doesn't have no 120k job.
you mean slick line or wireline? you ran wireline downhole to survey I'm guessing? I've done that on surface rigs, but we use MWD tools now, placed in the first collar. Our BHA is the drill bit, mud motor, 2 monels and then heavy weight
Worst I've ever seen was a deck hand get caught between a 48 inch pipe wrench and the A-leg on an RD-20 surface rig while we were tripping out...broke his collar bone and a few ribs
Now everything's becoming hydraulic with pipe skates replacing air chuggers to hoist pipe up the beaver slide, ST-80's replacing tongs, top drives replacing kellys, hydraulic slips, etc
That story you shared of the swab ripping that guy in half in the pump house is nuts. I've ordered my driller to kill the pumps when a leaking gasket was causing the valve cover to leak. Other than that, I've spent a lot of time scrubbing and hanging out in the pump house...albeit loud/dangerous, it's always warm
I'm done roughnecking...even with all the changes, it's a matter of time before I get hurt on the rig. Now I'll be required to be on the floor while logging or while simply putting the tool in the hole. Then it's back to the wireline truck. Less messy and laborsome and I'll make more than I did roughnecking
Plus I could never see myself climbing that ladder to become a tool pusher
Worst I've ever seen was a deck hand get caught between a 48 inch pipe wrench and the A-leg on an RD-20 surface rig while we were tripping out...broke his collar bone and a few ribs
Now everything's becoming hydraulic with pipe skates replacing air chuggers to hoist pipe up the beaver slide, ST-80's replacing tongs, top drives replacing kellys, hydraulic slips, etc
That story you shared of the swab ripping that guy in half in the pump house is nuts. I've ordered my driller to kill the pumps when a leaking gasket was causing the valve cover to leak. Other than that, I've spent a lot of time scrubbing and hanging out in the pump house...albeit loud/dangerous, it's always warm
I'm done roughnecking...even with all the changes, it's a matter of time before I get hurt on the rig. Now I'll be required to be on the floor while logging or while simply putting the tool in the hole. Then it's back to the wireline truck. Less messy and laborsome and I'll make more than I did roughnecking
Plus I could never see myself climbing that ladder to become a tool pusher
greenlikemoney
Well-Known Member
Very true NoDrama, and the price point is much closer to $80 than $70. $75 a barrel won't end fracking but it will slow down. A lot of new nanotechnology out there right now helping companies maximize what comes out of the ground. The Saudis won't slow down though at any price, the have bills to pay. Putin has worries though.
Yeah, we( the whole crew) were actually repairing a leaking pump when the Tool Pusher walked into the drillers shack saw that the pump was turned off and turned it back on, this was before lock-out procedures. All but one of us just happened to be smoking and joking standing outside while one guy was taking the crown nuts off. Soon as that 7,000 PSI hit, it just blew the swab right through him.
The Pusher became born again after that. Started speaking in tongues and liked snakes. He owns a drilling company now.
Once we had a flickering light over the shaker, I was tasked with looking at the light and the derrick hand was tasked with going to the light plant to check the connection. The only way to check the light was to climb up on the railing and take a peek. As soon as I touched the light housing the 480volt power grabbed my ass and wouldn't let go, I got shocked the holy hell out of me, a split second later the derrick hand ( Not knowing that I was in great danger) pulled the plug and the electricity released me, luckily i fell onto the cat walk instead of into the shaker. That was probably the closest I ever came to dying on the rig, I got hit so hard that I was physically blind for almost 2 minutes until my vision slowly restored itself. On the rigs at that time we mostly drilled with saltwater mud, Horizontal drilling wasn't even used then and diesel electric rigs were a brand new thing. We were constantly soaked in salt water because of breaking wet connections. Water and electricity just don't mix. Also the fact that there are tons of fucking stupid people working out there didn't help either.
Drugs? yep just about everyone was either drunk or high at work, there were no piss tests and many of the hands were addicted to smack or coke. Coke was the thing in the early 80's, you could work 2 shifts, make an extra $300 that day ( which is about the same as $1,000 today), buy an 8 ball and do it again. I doubled 12 hour shifts for 10 days straight and made an extra $9k. i took hour long naps in the mud shack because we were slow drilling and had lots of time between connections.
I remember my uncle putting joints down on the floor and telling me that I could have one if I scrubbed everything clean up to where it was. We all were smoking pot while working away.
We yelled at each other alot too, and called each other names and generally had a lot of rabble rousing. My dad always tells me how the rigs are a much kinder gentler place to be now and that you can't yell at people anymore.
I once took a job in E Montana to dig a really big hole. The area was called Goose Lake Deep and we went down 16,000 feet with one of the first diesel electric rigs that a company Bomac had ever used. Anyway, this was back in the days of slips, tongs, spinning chains and rotary tables. If you were tripping all the pipe out, it took 18 hours to get it all out and 12 hours to get it all back in. I think in 1 week we tripped it out 3 times and put it back in 4 times. My lats were HUGE from running the lead tongs, when I went in to the Marines I was one of the strongest guys there and won the company Iron Man competition.
When you and the driller can sync up, throwing the spinning chain is like watching the nutcracker suite. A fluid elegant dance of choreographed moves between the motor hand ducking out of the way and the chain flipping up while the driller releases the brake and the chain gets that tug and that pipe just zings into the other. I never had so much fun on a rig as those days.
I have so many rig stories its not funny.
Yeah, almost every rig I've been on has been diesel electric. I was on a rig in colorado once where those guys threw chain. Now it's just not necessary and a safety hazard
i'm def glad I'm off the rig now though. We drill the surface (first 2k ft) with saltwater, then the rest of the vertical and curve with invert aka oil-base (NASTY shit!) then the horizontal portion is drilled with salt water
I'm glad I won't be working nearly as hard, nor getting nearly as dirty and making more money while being in a lot less danger OFF the rig floor
As for the price per barrel, yeah it's always in the back of one's mind, but there haven't been many layoffs since I've arrived here (2011) and I think job security in wireline is better because we don't only work with drilling operations
Truth is, we just don't have enough refiners in this country that are equipped to process this grade of sweet crude
i'm def glad I'm off the rig now though. We drill the surface (first 2k ft) with saltwater, then the rest of the vertical and curve with invert aka oil-base (NASTY shit!) then the horizontal portion is drilled with salt water
I'm glad I won't be working nearly as hard, nor getting nearly as dirty and making more money while being in a lot less danger OFF the rig floor
As for the price per barrel, yeah it's always in the back of one's mind, but there haven't been many layoffs since I've arrived here (2011) and I think job security in wireline is better because we don't only work with drilling operations
Truth is, we just don't have enough refiners in this country that are equipped to process this grade of sweet crude
Just to clarify, but only once because I know how you love to twist things, black people do not "single-handedly create and perpetuate" all of their problems, but a lot more than you are willing to concede. My employee's sister with 9 kids, 2 abortions, and as of last week only has 1 in her custody isn't having the problems she is having because of someone else. She is an extreme example, but there are problems in the black community that are created and perpetuated by black people in the community. Even black people would tell you that, if you ever actually spoke to one.
That is one of the biggest problems I see in the black community. There are way too many fixable issues that simply cannot be addressed because it is not politically correct to do so. Before you can fix a problem, you must admit there is a problem.
Last edited:
ChesusRice
Well-Known Member
So why again must we build a pipeline to the gulf of mexico?
ChesusRice
Well-Known Member
to transport oil to refineries capable of refining shale grade crude...?? BNSF railways hauls 1.1 million barrels per day from the bakken...and is owned by Warren Buffett, whom lobbies against the Keystone XL pipeline you're referring to
but there are dozens of pipelines all over this country...so why does the Keystone get all the controversy?
but there are dozens of pipelines all over this country...so why does the Keystone get all the controversy?
ChesusRice
Well-Known Member
Because they want to run it over the Oglalla Aquifer. And they want to run it to a port for eventual export.
As to Warren Buffet:
Despite his stake in the railroad business, Buffett still expressed support for the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.
“I think probably the Keystone Pipeline is a good idea from the country,” he posited. As to if and when it would be completed, his answer was less definitive: “I have no idea.
Buffett’s BNSF, along with rival Union Pacific and others, stand to profit either way. Even if plans for the pipeline go ahead, locomotives will be needed to lug out much of the raw material needed for its construction; Buffett says Keystone is “not that big a competitor.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/03/03/warren-buffett-is-still-bullish-on-rail-and-keystone/