Quote: (06-25-2012 08:45 PM)houston Wrote:
Quote: (06-25-2012 11:55 AM)scotian Wrote:
I`ve stated in other oil related threads that I`d personally never work on an oil rig, although there`s good money to be made, its too tough and you`re relocation options are limited to where oil is drilled once you`ve had enough. Try to get into a trade or acquire some sort of skill that you can do anywhere, not just a remote boom town because trust me, you will eventually get tired of the oil boom lifestyle.
What about to get my foot in the door? I don't plan on sticking with a rig forever, but I'm going tomorrow to see about working on one. I just want to get my foot in the oil industry somehow and want to do it close to home if possible.
I'm not sure how busy your local market is, but Houston is one of the biggest refining areas in the world. There should be opportunities to get into a trade there, not too sure if there's actual oil rigs around the city, I think its mostly piped in from offshore in the gulf or other areas in land (Texas has several large drilling areas on land).
Basically, the oil industry is divided into two sectors; upstream and downstream. Upstream is a place like North Dakota where they search for and recover oil, in this case by drilling it. The product is then sent downstream, mostly via pipeline to a refining centre such as Joliet Illinois, Cushing Oklahoma or Houston Texas (all of which would be a lot busier now if your president didn`t put the kibosh on the keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian oil down there).
Each operation has different opportunities for work. Tradesmen such as welders, mechanics, electricians work in both upstream and downstream, but you won`t see too many drill rig guys downstream.
That`s why I usually suggest trades work to guys looking to get into the oil biz, most refineries are located near cities (in your case, your back yard!) and most up upstream operations are located in remote towns like Williston, or in my case Fort McMurray, Alberta, which by most measures are both shit holes.
If you still want to give the rigs a try, go for it, there`s definitely some good coin to make on them and even if you don`t like it, one 21 day rotation will pay for your expenses getting up there and you`d probably still have a few bucks left over if you decide its not for you.