Any oil drillers here?

[dieseltech09]

hey dieseltech what job did you start off as when you first went to work in the oil fields? How much did the new guys make when they first started?
I could take a pay cut for awhile since I'll havethe cash from selling my business.

I was recurited out of trade school by Schlumberger as a Mechanical Technician making $16.50 an hour. 3 years latter when I was layed-off I was making $21.75. If I recall most wireline hands were starting at around $10 plus job Bonus. Most were making 50 to 60K their first year. The ones that had been there a while were making 70 - 100k + a year.

Halliburton wireline pays a little more an hour plus overtime where Schlumberger doesnt, but no job bonus. The guys I know that went to Halliburton are making more than they did for Schlumberger.

Nothing against drillers but most are a pretty rough bunch of people and there are better jobs in the patch than working on a rig

 

[PUMPKIN]

holly refinery is hiring.

 

[j-dubb]

If you can keep from it you don't want to work on a Drilling Rig not as a Rig hand at least, like mentioned before there are alot better/easier jobs in the Oil and Gas Business. Working on a rig as a floor hand/derrick hand is hard hard work, the only tougher job in the Oil business in my opinion is working on a Pulling Unit/Work over rig. How old are you? Education? College? CDL? Skills? Getting on a Wirleline Truck, Fraccing Crew, Acid Truck is easy cake work. Cement crews have easy jobs. There are tons and tons of jobs out there and some pay pretty good, however its the patch so its not a normal 9-5 Monday-Friday weekends off type of deal. Also like someone else said when not if, but when the bottom falls out of oil again there will be ALOT of people without jobs in the industry. If your on the bottom of the pole your the first to go and just because your a higher up doesnt mean your safe.

For Pjackso, you cant just "buy" into a well site unless you have some connections. Meaning how many leases or deals do you know about for sale right now? So you have to know someone that works in the Oil Business that owns/operates leases for a living and then they have to be willing to let you in on that deal. If you know nothing about this type of business or if you dont know someone that you can really trust that does know whats going on then your better off investing your money elsewhere. I've seen alot of people invest money into a lease that knew nothing about the oil business and get taken to the cleaners or operated to death.

 

[shady]

this +100000

 

[huskres]

holly refinery is hiring.

Looks like Holly is only hiring guys with 4 plus years of experience.

 

[Scamp]

I have worked in wireline for 17 years now, and if I had one bit of advice to give you it would be to stay away from workover rigs, that is some hard and dangerous work.
Drilling rigs are pretty laid back nowadays and the work is not as bad as it is made out to be, but the rig is always moving and you have to go with it or find a rig closer to home.
Service companies like wireline, frac, coil tubing, snubbing, etc... are great, but the future is always in question, and being on call 24 hours a day everyday of your life sucks. I mainly work on the production side of the oilfield so my work will continue on even after the drilling and workover work stops or slows down.
I would look for a job with a gas/oil company itself, maybe not as much money, but a better future for sure. A pumper can make pretty good money and has scheduled days off to boot.

PA is where the money is, we have a shop out there and those boys are making bank! (but you have to have experience...)

 

[okietom]

I worked on drilling rigs for eleven years. Still know some people that do now. It is a young mans work. The thing I liked about the rigs is that you knew what hours you would work most of the time. A lot of the other jobs you are on call. I think that starting pay is around $20. Nabors, Nomac, Unit, H and P, and Cactus are some of the companies. Most of them do hair folicle drug testing and that is a problem for a lot of people. Most of them work 7 on and 7 off and many have bunk houses on location or nearby so driving every day isn't a big problem. They do move around and you will learn a lot of back roads. You can apply with Nomac and some others online. Most will send you to some safety classes before you start.

 

[stewartglock]

A good friend of mine is a Driller for Nomac up in Pennsylvania. They fly him up there, put him up in a hotel, feed him and give him per diem. It is 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, but he is single so that is not an issue for him. It took him about 4 years to work up to that spot, but he does well for himself. Before that he worked at Nabors and was always on a rig in Oklahoma until the economy started south.

Like others have said, I would look into either a specialty (wireline, frac, etc.), or the production side of the house as those might be more stable and you will still make good money.

 

[huskres]

Where do I find those speciatly jobs at? Haven't seen any listed on any of the companies job boards. What positions are entry level there?

 

[arenathlete]

Working on a rig as a floor hand/derrick hand is hard hard work, the only tougher job in the Oil business in my opinion is working on a Pulling Unit/Work over rig.

+1

Look towards ND, they can't get enough people to work the Bakken; CleanHarbors just took over Peak doing a lot of mud work, much easier than being a floor-hand