Anybody work up there right now? Im thinking of going up there to start in the oil field. What can I expect to make the first year? Is it as easy to get a job as everyone says? I'd like to atleast make 50k the first year and 70-80 the second/third year and then up. Is that realistic in the oil business? I'd start as a worm and move up. I feel I have a maxed out construction job in CA making 52k a year, max 40 hrs a week and minimum increases in pay the next years to come. Thanks in advance

 

Worst of it is, where are you going to stay? Hotels are booked solid and any place that's for rent, they're charging $1200+ a month for rent.

Every company is looking for help big time. Truck drivers, roustabouts, pumpers, rig hands (service and drilling), frac hands, every company. Depending on where you work, make $60,000 a year, easy.

 

My plan would be to work for a company that offered man camps or some sort of shift housing or pull my travel trailer up and rent a spot at an rv park. Besides winter i'd sleep in my truck if I had to until something worked out.

 

RV parks are solid also. Last December, I seen a few rv's parked out in a field next to a power pole.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000772048903

 

Thats going to be the hardest thing is to find a place to live thats not insanely in price for not very much.
There is a shortage of camp houses, campers, places to park where you will survive the winter etc etc. At 1200 a month I wonder if a guy could run a 4 seasons camper on propane and pay a farmer a nice rate for a spot and electricity?
All the areas across the line in Canada are packed as well. Friend of mine who is netting 3K a week pays 600 a month for a shared motel room...very small...very old and very filthy.
There are also many people displaced with the flooding on both sides of the border which makes it even harder to find a place.

 

Roughnecks stay at man camps or on location there. you don't have to get housing. The housing isn't the best, but it is what it is. You provide your own food, generally there is a crew truck to take you to and from location. Don't just show up though. Oil companies that you want to work for don't hire off the street anymore. Drugs, felonies, etc. Call Nabors, H&P, Ensign, Patterson. Only work with the big boys, they care about the health of their people, ma and pop ops will get you killed, literally. Leave your resume with them and get a phone interview. Be persistent.

The worst part about north dakota is that it is north dakota. It is unbelievably cold there. -40 with 50MPH winds, along with feet of snow. It will make a man out of you, for sure.

50K is no problem, if you keep your wits about you, don't go to the bar, don't buy a new truck, essentially be smart with your money, it will be seen in your work ethic. 70 to 80 is also no problem. We are in desperate need of 'professional' roughnecks. We need people who want to improve efficiency to keep the rotary turnin. If you are really serious, essentially the sky is the limit.

It is really not all that hard of work, but it is work. It is dirty, hot, cold, uncomfortable, and smelly but it pays very well and there is not a better group of guys to work with, at least the serious ones.

Keep our mouth shut, your ears open, and your hands busy, get to the tour meeting early, and leave the floor last, be the first one to pick up a scrub brush (use it), don't complain when you have to trip pipe, or whine during the rig move and you will go as far as you like. The sky is the limit.

Learn to laugh, and when they find your buttons they will push them relentlessly. We all joke around, goof off, make fun of each other, and it all stays at the rig. Just look at what Blake Clark and I say to each other. We are always looking for that zinger, and when we find it, look out. And he aint even a roughneck. He's just a wimpy, 4 wheeler wanna be, head crackin, pipe liner.

Always look up, and ALWAYS keep an escape route. And never put your finger where you wouldn't put your... well you know.

One more word of caution. And it is VERY serious.

SAVE every penny, and I mean every penny as this oil boom will come to an end, and when rigs stack out you need a savings account that will get you through at least a year. If you are one of the dependable workers you may get spared, but not always.

No luck about it, do the work and it will pay off.

 

Take Wyododge's advice. I did and I start with Patterson UTI on December 4th. I chose to stay a bit close to home since I have little ones and getting married next summer. It takes some time due to the amount of resume's they are getting. The BIGGEST problem is the companies are having a difficult time to find someone who will show up to work SOBER, pass a drug test and BE ON TIME. I don't drink, don't do the funny stuff and work my tail off for myself and currently another entity. The fiance and I have a plan on saving money as she is a Operating Room Nurse and makes pretty good money. Right now, after we get married, we are going to save her entire check into savings along with my VA disability check. That would equate to over 50k plus a year in just savings as we can live on my check alone (from Patterson). will be 1 week on, 1 week off and in man camp. I have been in worse living conditions when in the military so I am not worried about it. Just toss a MRE once and a while and I will be good to go. Wyo has been a great help in me finding a job with a company that has a good reputation and a safety record as we all want to go home at the end of the day intact. With my diesel knowledge and experience, my plan is to move up from the bottom of the pile ASAP. Since I have some age on me (wyo has already warned me of the ribbing I am going to get being "grandpa" on the rig) so don't be too thinned skin and wear your feelings on your shirt sleeve. I am willing to do what it takes, wash, scrub, sling pipe, get dirty etc to make a name for myself as I have done all my life in the things I do.

Here is the low down on how it happened to me. Chatted several times with Wyo, looked at all of the companies he told me to apply for. many of them are online and Patterson UTI, I had to fax in a resume. I faxed that resume to every HR office on their list except PA since that would be too far from home right now. It took a couple weeks of waiting as their HR departments did not want to take calls and their answer to a "status" was "we will call you if you are selected". Well I go the call on a friday from the Oklahoma HR office. I had turned it down cause I got a job from a govt agency here locally since it had taken so long to hear back from any oil companies. The guy was like ok, if you change your mind call me. Well on Monday, the Midland Tx HR office called and I accepted the job interview. I was like, this is what I wanted so this govt job can be just a stepping stone to keep $$ coming in to pay bills. I drove to Midland for the interview. 1st off, there is a computer integrity test. If you fail the test (with Patterson) you can NEVER apply their EVER in your life. Pass the test, and you move onto the interview it with the superintendent. Pass that interview and then off to the drug test. Hair follicle test that goes back 90 days (I now have a nice 40 year old virgin bald spot on my chest since I maintain a military hair cut, go ahead and laugh its true! LOL). Well that takes about a week to get results back and for HR to review the entire package and I got the call last week (tuesday if I remember) with a job offer to report December 4th, training starts the 5th, get on the training rig the 9th, off the 14th after work and them home for a week. Will be assigned a permanent rig after the training rig. don't know if I will be in Midland (or west texas) or Eastern New Mexico. either way, I am close to home and the drive won't be too bad. I am getting excited and the fiance is in total support so we can get things paid off, save a grip of money so after 3 years, we can pay cash for a house and or some land back in Idaho where we want to be when the kids get kicked out of the house the day after graduation! LOL.

Just be persistent and follow Wyo's advise and good luck brother.

 

Looks like the EPA will most likely halt drilling in North Dakota for 12-24 months.
Source: Bismarck Tribune Nov.27 2011

 

I don't think they would do anything this catastrophic close to the elections.. But then again we are talking Bo Bo the clown and company ..

 

As somebody who works for a service company in the Bakken I would say go for the bigger companies as the previous posts have said. The bigger companies may treat you like a number, but their safety policies are safer and they have man camps for their workers. If things are still booming two years down the road. Your experience will be valuable and financially you would be in a very good position.

 

I've heard the folks up around that way are complaining about all of the man camps and crews up there. Sounds like half the world is headed up to ND! Williston I believe is what I keep hearing about. Ya'll enjoy the nice weather up there! Call me in April and I'll come up!

 

Being as Im only a pipeliner, and not edumacated in the ways of the roughnecks, the only think I can add to this is...


Jeff sucks!

 

I see you STILL have not recovered from the Melon Mashing if that is the best you can come up with Try some electroshock therapy with some Hi-Frequency AC to see if we can jump start that melon of yours..

 

Here's the story

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/stat...cc4c03286.html


God Edit Edit Edit EPA.


As aggravating as it is, lets keep to the posting rules.

Blake

 

Nah, its Jeffs babble that resonates at the right frequency and keeps my neurons from firing properly.