academy, short answer is no. long answer is still no, not a good placw to work for. its a long story about that place. that i dont want to type out. Ill tell you at the next gtg or something. family run, long history, uncle and nephew run the mechanic shop. its effing brutal for mechanics anyways.

 

Welcome from High River!! I dont work in the patch but sometimes deliver to them.

 

Welcome to DTR I don't work i n the Oil patch either but I buy alot of their finished product.

 

Welcome to the Alberta chapter. I am in the oilpatch-but on the opposite end from you. I finish what you guys start (field operator).

Jason

 

Sorry i asked , thats crappy that they treat you guys like that. Nabors seems to treat there mech's bad too, especially the feild guys. One guy has to look after 18 rigs, that poor guy is always on the go.

J hansen..

What company do u work for? just curious if its slow with them aswell?


Dfranks...Dont we all


fury... Thanks and do u run a hot shot company?


Too all....
Do u guys ever do meet's or get together's I hear some people do! but there really isnt much for, let's call it the diesel bug in my home town as there is in other places. No oil patch stuff in lethbridge just the farming industry, and retirement. Mind ya there is the college and university girls. Shhhh im married, but looking is cool right,

 

I am a contractor for CNRL. Not much going on in our part of the world now-they have been planning CBM projects for the last 2.5 years now and they keep getting deferred for better opportunities elsewhere. Looking like next year they will be spending money on drilling oil in Alberta-but not gas unless they see something they really like, or to keep their rights. Gotta love the revised royalty schedule....

Anyway, at least from what is filtering down to us peons in the field, there are no layoffs planned either in the office or the field. Pretty secure this close to the wellhead-and CNRL has never been noted for overstaffing at the field level.

Jason

 

Thats promising eh, are you guys hiring, i might know a tool push thats out of work starting in january lol, huskey just dropped there budget in half, that's around 60% of nabors work. It should be an interesting year on the service rig's next year.

 

Yeah, things are getting slow everywhere. I'm a plant and field operator as well, and where I'm at were starting to see a lot of resumes coming in, and from people that are consultants and pushes, looking for something steady to pay the bills. There are a lot of people out there that are going to be in a world of hurt if things don't pick up.

Used to pipeline for several years, and got sick of the feast or famine of the oilfield work, so i got into operating about 6years ago. Not as good of money, but very steady work. Haven't regretted it at all.

Hey, JHansen, where abouts do you work??

 

Haha I don't own one but I do work for one.
Fred.

 

I am also a field operator for Progress/ProEx up here in Fort St John. Still really busy for me up here! The ABDTR is a good place to be.

 

My field is pretty much dead-center in a triangle between Stettler, Drumheller, and Hanna. Small little plant with just under 40 wells coming in-all gas and the majority shallow. Myself and another guy work it on opposite 9-and-5's.

Apparently right now, from what I can gather, CNRL is not creating any new positions-just hiring to fill existing openings. Still better than layoffs-although like I said earlier we're pretty safe in the field. They're pretty much at a bare minimum for staffing right now. Don't know what you guys have been seeing, but around here anyway, there's a ton of guys gone consulting in the last 5 years or so that realistically have no business doing it. Our longtime construction consultant hung up his hat to go operating because he was sick of being away from home all the time and never being able to plan time off. His replacement(s) have proved out to be not in the same league. Applies to the operations side as well-seems like there's a lot of older guys retiring-and the young guys coming along don't have the same work ethic or level of interest. Everyone wants the cash-nobody wants to work for it though....

Jason

 

Yeah, tell me about it. Too many outfits paying big dollars just for a body to fill a seat and not expecting them to be proficient at what they are doing. What really peeves me off, is nobody seems to remember what it was like when you had a hard time finding a good job, and now there is no job loyalty. You see it all the time, especially in Fort mac money. Somebody gets offered 50 cents an hour more somewhere else and they are gone. Only good thing, is like now when stuff is slowing down, they are the first ones layed off.

BTW, I also work work CNRL, up in North East gas, near Lac La Biche. Not too bad of a place, small plant/field, shallow gas, just me and the crossshift. Good place to be.

 

Our safety guy came from the NE gas area. Good guy actually-wouldn't trade him jobs for any amount of cash....Sounds like your field is close to ours-but I bet you ship a shade more than we do. The last new drilling they did in our field was '03-right after they bought it. They do a recompletion here and there every once in a while-I have been bugging the hell out of them the last few months to try some stuff in suspended wells-either make something out of them or get rid of them.

I've been with Big Blue now for almost 6 years-they acquired me when they bought out our area. Real hard adjustment at first from the little company we were to the big company we became-and CNRL itself has changed so much in the last 6 years. Still would like to work for a little company again once in a while just to get rid of the red tape/bureaucracy that exists in a big company-but I expect I'll be around here for a while yet.

Jason

 

Wow it seems that we all get these guy's, and your right .50c raise some where else and gone. Ive thought about leaving for more money but ive been here 9 years now and they have treated me real good. I almost left for sask 3 months ago, glad i didnt we just pulled our rigs out of there. That would have been like shooting myself in the a$$. Nabors here isnt looking to too good for the next quarter either, i guess we will have to see what these companies are willing to spend for next year, or ill be the greater at walmart. How come they are always smiling, that just gets me

 

I've had lots of chances to go in the last 6 years....but it's never come down to money. If you want to get top dollar, CNRL is not the place for you-they never will be at the top of the payscale-it's part of their culture. For me, it comes down to quality of life-I am past the point of embracing callouts for the overtime they bring. Anything that drops my operating costs is good (fuel especially) , anything that improves my life away from work is better (shift schedule, holidays etc.).