I split the top bunk with my night hand (we do 6-6) the other half of the trailer is the solids control, the middle between halves is a laundry room, so after shift I got this baby to myself
You gotta bring your own food, I have a big cooler I can fit 2 weeks of food in. I’m usually drilling within an hour of town so it’s not too bad normally. If the well goes for a month you gotta go to town. They do cater thanksgiving and Christmas though which is nice
Sorry if this is too personal but what does an oil rig geologist make? I like the outdoors and a harder work job wise and don’t wanna be stuck inside forever so this sounds cool as shit!
I had a geologist friend that made (what seemed to me as a 20-something) pretty good money. He’d do like 6-month gigs for $50-60k a piece in, like a gold mine in chile, or oil site in remote Alaska.
If you have kids and a family that’s be rough, but as a single young person it works out. But anyway he’s do like one job a year, so get the $60k for the 5-6 month gig. Then work on his music and be home the other 6-months.
Money isn’t what it used to be working on rigs but it still is solid pay. Like others said, only really worth it if you’re single. The 2/1 or 2/2 week rotations are especially nice for traveling around
Depends on how much you hate yourself / have a drug or gambling problem. The world needs more roughnecks but your body will make noises it shouldn’t a lot sooner than you’d think. Those guys go hard and I thank god I don’t do that but the rig don’t drill without them. Floor hand is the basic starter position, you just gotta reach out to a rig company and pass a drug test.
Im sure youre making bucks and hell yeah to that. But damn no way in hell i would go back lmao. "Hate yourself / drug or gambling problem" is so right. I was the only one in my camp with a valid liscence due to all the other dipshits DUI's.
I was a pipeline controller for 4 years and what you're saying couldn't be further from a lie. it's sad to see cos they should've been making double what I had been - I was controlling 200 miles of line on 12 hour shifts in front of 9 monitors INDOORS (DuPont schedule). those dudes were hardcore but they looked rough as fuck all the time. yeah they were doing "well" financially but they paid a dear price with their time and bodies
Yeah it really is a shame. I make significantly more than the hands and I have a nice heated office - I always make sure to bring snacks and shit for the crew. Winter is brutal here, tripping pipe in -15°F has to be beyond brutal, 60mph gusts on the monkey boards? Gotta have nerves of steel for that job.
I get paid a per diem for living expenses, ~$70USD/day for food and toiletries. The only oil rigs that I know of that have mess halls are offshore because of logistics, it would logistically make no sense to have that out here with how often the rigs move
Damn $70/day seems pretty great to me..?! Assuming normal compensation is decently good, seems like the per diem is an OK way to penny pinch on supplies and squeeze a few more bucks of pay per week/month...?
Yeah it’s just white noise, the worst part is when it’s windy the pipe in the rack turns into 90’ tall wind chimes. It helps that I walk by those generators a few dozen times a day so I’m basically fucking deaf
The first time I did them at a party I felt like I was infinitely shitting, but nothing would come out. Turned me off for 13 years, but when I tried them again while camping out in the woods beneath the Cascade mountains it was almost indescribable.
I mean, I could describe that as "rolling waves of violent gut cramps for a few hours" and people could probably understand the feeling. Describing what I saw and felt looking at the mountains though; the old man made of stone crawling from the earth and looming over Darrington like a titan, the rise and fall of the era of great beasts told through a tapestry in the crags and snow-filled crevasses on the face of the mountains, the electric pulse of every cell and nerve in my body... Way harder to describe in as few words.
Micro dosing is like taking a caffeine pill that doesn't make you shake and increases your mental acuity / memory recall. I usually do 5 days on, 2 days off per week and 6 weeks on, one week off.
Everyone i know who started taking them regularly refers to them as "smart pills".
Then again, where i live shrooms are legal and extremely common. You can buy them at head shops or the gas station, but those can be sketchy lol
It definitely is. I get a custom blend from my brother, it has something like 8 or 9 different mushrooms in it including lion's mane, reishi, and cordyceps. I know one of the psychedelic mushrooms in it are enigma, but I forget the other one he puts in there.
I usually don't take mushrooms recreationally, I've had enough macro doses in my time. But the micro doses are a major life improvement.
Definitely do them while camping in beautiful nature, never at a party, the first time.
My first was at Big Sur, CA. Amazing, except it turned out I spent part of the time looking out at the ocean while sitting on poison ivy. So I spent a week or so after that looking like sloth from the Goonies, but it was worth it
Ah man, poison ivy?! I thought the latter part of mine was bad. I got tricked into leaving the camp by friends who said they were going to a fire lookout, which sounded awesome, but they slipped in a trip to a restaurant and a gun store, none of which I wanted any part of because I was peaking, so I opted to lay down in the back of a Ford Ranger on a 90 degree day for three hours in awe of the world while my ego eroded and I became a gondola.
Yeah I’ve gotten that before, feels like you’re listening to a conch shell. In the eternal words of Neil Young “the mighty diesel whines”. I’d love to work with locomotives, being a conductor or brake man is a childhood dream
I’m in mechanical and it was very cool at first but it’s turned out to be a bit of a bummer. The part that fucks with me is the disregard for the craftsmanship and doing things right. It’s not about maintaining a functional railroad - it’s just about the numbers and money unfortunately.
100% raw dog, and you usually don’t have service either. Luckily people got wise and started bringing starlinks which I’m currently bumming. The office trailer I work in has internet though but it can’t reach to the living trailers
Here's a question for Op. I watched a video on YouTube called. How oil rig crew eat,sleep and shower in the middle of the ocean. Brutal routines is the channel. So my question is since all oil rigs are different I assume. How often does it take you to fall asleep.
Depends on the day, I’ve worked 36 hours straight before and was hallucinating, fell asleep before I hit the bed. I’m usually off between 7-8pm and up at 430-530 so I try to get to bed by 9pm to get my 8 hours - I don’t always follow this and have done weeks only getting 3-4 hours of sleep, I know I’m a sleep deprived bitch by the end of that well lol
Lmao, unfortunately no cartels out here. The nearly dying part is more accurate but for a lot less dumb shit. Thankfully my job is pretty safe, but I see helicopters doing lifeflights at least once a week
Depends on how much I work, I get paid per diem. If I work 30 days straight my take home is around ~15k for the month, but I usually work half that and take a few months off every year to not burn out. Average is 100-150k after taxes but I am one of the top field geologists in the industry so paid higher than average. Company men and directional drillers make about double that, hands make about half. Though I have met some hands that made bank they’re just worked to the bones and looked 50 at 25
Is there any company going through a hiring cycle right now? I’m a mechanical engineer laid off from the semiconductor industry and would like to transition to oil and gas
Unfortunately price of oil has been down for a bit and operators out here are tightening their belts again. On the upside, there is always a need for good drilling engineers, but that usually either requires climbing the ranks or going to a drilling school to learn and transfer over. It can be a tough circle to break into if you don’t know anybody but there will always be good paying jobs with openings
Just curious, if anyone has a medical emergency out there, is there a clinic or a doctor(s) or paramedic on-site to help? It sounds like you're working in a very remote, isolated area. And being that overworked as you describe it has got to have some negative effects on your health.
lol no we don’t have anything onsite but you better know your first aid and stop the bleed just in case. The motto is ‘baindaids or body bags’. It’s either a small injury and you walk it off, or you’re missing a leg and getting lifeflighted to the hospital. I have a coworker that broke his hand and finished out his shift before driving to the hospital, was still at work the next morning. Very few injuries that are serious enough to need immediate medical attention but non life threatening
Depends on your proximity to a town, further out you are the less likely you are to have a safety inspector from the state. Like any jobsite we have to comply with basic safety guidelines, every single site has a JSA, and safety is always the #1 concern on a rig this large. The further out and the smaller the rig, the more that goes by the wayside, to where there are tiny single stacks out there with essentially 0 safety. But no, no personnel on site dedicated to safety, that’s just the whole crew on a rig like this. A rig this large, we have safety meetings every single morning and evening at 530 before shift change
i genuinely could consider wrapping my head around this line of work but im too addicted to using video games to relax after work that id go mad (im guessing no gaming pc allowed)
Naw you can 100% bring a computer or console out here, you won’t have any energy to use it but there’s nothing stopping you from gaming after work other than no internet. But lots of starlinks to bum from
If it’s an offshore oil rig or ship it would be hard but doable, I worked on a supply ship and I was able to play Skyrim on my laptop when time between watches permitted. But you can’t leave electronics plugged in long cause of the power surges with the ships generators. Also gaming during heavy seas had its own problems. I assume oil rigs are somewhat similar. Also I was allowed to have my own personal laptop and phone (flip phone at the time).
Luckily our power is stable here as long as the company man remembers to order diesel for the camp generators and everything is GFCI, a lot of our guys bring their consoles out. Only time weather has been an issue is when I was in Thunder basin and we had lightning storms hit the rig so we had to power down. I’ve never done offshore but I’d imagine the biggest difficulty would be getting it there, since I know a lot of crews in the gulf are flown they probably have weight limits on baggage
I am a wellsite geologist, I collect samples of rock and gas and a shitload of other data and interpolate it to characterize the oil reservoirs, understand large scale basin structure, and how it ties in to reservoir quality. Also serve as the bridge for engineering and geology, i take all that data to characterize the geo mechanics and how it affects drilling to better optimize well bore placement or drilling parameters or mud properties. We also optimize well bore placement based on reservoir quality and how it will frac. My day to day is catching samples, collecting data, staring into a microscope, interpolating how a thousand tracks of squiggly lines tie into the rock we’re drilling miles down. The data collected is both used in real time and taken by the reservoir engineers/office geos to make decisions about how and where to drill the best wells.
Geo here. In the FIFO business in metals mining. Is this what being a mudlogger is? Or is this a few steps further up? Not trying to change I like hard rock and seeing gold. The cabins look similar to my site, but we have discount used north slope ones.
Yeah I’m a mudlogger by trade, my company is just doing a high level of geology and interpretation relative to the industry, we’re very intertwined with the headquarter and ops geos, and even have been ops geo for smaller operators. We also are doing outcrop and core trips regularly since the basin deposition is so complex. We also do helium. I only make this distinction because in the 90s and 2000s the mudlogging industry turned to crap and lost a lot of respect, a lot of non geologists out there and I’m incredibly proud of the work we do. In fact, I’m on a pilot hole and will be sitting in on wireline tomorrow, coring in a few days.
Cool! I thought you guys didn't ever get core lol. Have a couple former O&G guys I work with, but they were hard on the geophysics side and pretty office bound it sounds like. Glad you like it I've never heard anything positive from people I've known who've done it. And from what you're saying in other posts you're not stuck in no where Texas too! I don't think I could ever do O&G but I really do wanna get a tour on a rig sometime. They seem like crazy ass giant intricate machines, and the mining industry makes me feel like I'm a little cog in a big machine too. It's cool stuff that a lot of my environmental buddies side eye me for. Hope you can balance the whack ass schedule it's crazy working those 12 hour days for a month straight.
Mostly just work, I wake up at around 5-530, my tour (twelve hour) starts at 6, work all day, usually get off by 7, shower, eat, and I’m in bed. It’s not bad but after 2-3 weeks working every day you’re ready to go home. Being out here is great though, a lot of cool people, sometimes feels like the Wild West when you’re on smaller jobs, I did a well in Kentucky not too long ago drilling in someone’s front yard, I walked around location in crocs with no hard hat - very freeing feeling when you’re used to FRs and steel toes and JSAs. You get to see and do tons of cool shit with machinery that will delete your existence with 0 effort
My job specifically is a wellsite geologist which requires at minimum a geology degree, but we’re hiring new grads constantly so not too hard. I am absolutely obsessed with my job because I love geology to my core and I get to see rocks that are several miles down that no other human has ever seen. and trying to piece together deposition and reservoirs is like the ultimate jigsaw puzzle. This job isn’t for everyone but i love what I do
lol no breaks. Lunch is if I have time, but I often choose not to eat because my hands are covered in chemicals, I wait till I can shower. I’m currently 2.5 hours away from town so no going home for lunch, I live on site for the duration of the well which is anywhere between 5 days and a month. Beer is an absolute no go on site you will get ran off location in a heartbeat.
My BIL owns the geology company I work for, timing was perfect with him starting the company and me getting a geology degree. Didn’t think I’d be doing this till senior year, I interned for him and was instantly hooked
I remember those days. I’m a consultant but over on the Frac side. We stayed in mancamps all over wtx when I worked at SLB. Been in the patch since 2011
That's a lot more room than I ever thought you'd get on an oil rig. Not sure why, but I always assumed it was like Navy conditions. Are you low on the hierarchy or management?
I honestly wasn’t sure if this fit the sub or not, based on a lot of the other posts I thought it did, but this is definitely a nice ass living trailer
Yeah I do feel a bit bad tbf after seeing the post of the guy sleeping on boxes in the snow, definitely not the same, but this sub is such a mix I was inspired after seeing the Australian miners camp
Unfortunately I’m the closest thing to IT on this rig (office worker under 50 lol). Pason Tech is the closest real job though, but they do a shitload more than just computers. Most operators have in house IT at their headquarters though
lol where did you hear this? Offshore definitely makes more but has a way higher barrier for entry and insurance costs are insane. Company men, Directional drillers, and even some MWDs are making 250k+ doing 2 weeks on 2 weeks off. The office guys at headquarters? Even more. I work maybe 30% of the days in a year and am at 100k+.
Do you have a roommate?
I split the top bunk with my night hand (we do 6-6) the other half of the trailer is the solids control, the middle between halves is a laundry room, so after shift I got this baby to myself
Lol I read that as you split the top bunk with your right hand and well nevermind. Looks pretty cozy for an oil rig!
Glad I wasn’t the only one.
The night hand sleeps in it when you’re not there and vice versa?
One gets top one gets bottom
Every top needs their bottom.
That sounds pretty isolated.
2.5 hours of dirt road from the nearest town currently, could be worse I’ve been farther out
I assume they have some stockpile of food/groceries for you guys? Or how do you go about meals/snacks or little things you need while you’re out there
You gotta bring your own food, I have a big cooler I can fit 2 weeks of food in. I’m usually drilling within an hour of town so it’s not too bad normally. If the well goes for a month you gotta go to town. They do cater thanksgiving and Christmas though which is nice
You guys hiring?
If you got a degree in geology we are (I’m a geologist not rig hand). The rigs themselves are literally always hiring
Sorry if this is too personal but what does an oil rig geologist make? I like the outdoors and a harder work job wise and don’t wanna be stuck inside forever so this sounds cool as shit!
I had a geologist friend that made (what seemed to me as a 20-something) pretty good money. He’d do like 6-month gigs for $50-60k a piece in, like a gold mine in chile, or oil site in remote Alaska.
If you have kids and a family that’s be rough, but as a single young person it works out. But anyway he’s do like one job a year, so get the $60k for the 5-6 month gig. Then work on his music and be home the other 6-months.
Money isn’t what it used to be working on rigs but it still is solid pay. Like others said, only really worth it if you’re single. The 2/1 or 2/2 week rotations are especially nice for traveling around
What sort of experience is required for basic rig positions. Anything entry level?
Depends on how much you hate yourself / have a drug or gambling problem. The world needs more roughnecks but your body will make noises it shouldn’t a lot sooner than you’d think. Those guys go hard and I thank god I don’t do that but the rig don’t drill without them. Floor hand is the basic starter position, you just gotta reach out to a rig company and pass a drug test.
Im sure youre making bucks and hell yeah to that. But damn no way in hell i would go back lmao. "Hate yourself / drug or gambling problem" is so right. I was the only one in my camp with a valid liscence due to all the other dipshits DUI's.
I was a pipeline controller for 4 years and what you're saying couldn't be further from a lie. it's sad to see cos they should've been making double what I had been - I was controlling 200 miles of line on 12 hour shifts in front of 9 monitors INDOORS (DuPont schedule). those dudes were hardcore but they looked rough as fuck all the time. yeah they were doing "well" financially but they paid a dear price with their time and bodies
Yeah it really is a shame. I make significantly more than the hands and I have a nice heated office - I always make sure to bring snacks and shit for the crew. Winter is brutal here, tripping pipe in -15°F has to be beyond brutal, 60mph gusts on the monkey boards? Gotta have nerves of steel for that job.
Not having a mess hall seems rather cheap of your company tbh. I’ve seen large mining operations in Australia that make this look like section 8.
I get paid a per diem for living expenses, ~$70USD/day for food and toiletries. The only oil rigs that I know of that have mess halls are offshore because of logistics, it would logistically make no sense to have that out here with how often the rigs move
That makes more sense then if you’re constantly relocating your operation.
Damn $70/day seems pretty great to me..?! Assuming normal compensation is decently good, seems like the per diem is an OK way to penny pinch on supplies and squeeze a few more bucks of pay per week/month...?
I know someone who was sent from Scotland to a rig a few hundred miles off the coast of Mauritania last year..
Edit: “someone”
Who?
Ffs
*someone
Cameron “Caz” Mcleary?
Looks cozy.
Nothing like falling asleep to the drone of 3 diesel generators the size of a house
I’d imagine you stop noticing after a while, but that’s just a guess.
Yeah it’s just white noise, the worst part is when it’s windy the pipe in the rack turns into 90’ tall wind chimes. It helps that I walk by those generators a few dozen times a day so I’m basically fucking deaf
Jesus Christ.
I’m around diesel locomotives all day and when I took shrooms over the summer there was a background noise of diesels running lol.
I’ve heard shrooms do indescribable things sometimes. One day🧐
The first time I did them at a party I felt like I was infinitely shitting, but nothing would come out. Turned me off for 13 years, but when I tried them again while camping out in the woods beneath the Cascade mountains it was almost indescribable.
Infinitely shitting sounds indescribable to be fair.
I mean, I could describe that as "rolling waves of violent gut cramps for a few hours" and people could probably understand the feeling. Describing what I saw and felt looking at the mountains though; the old man made of stone crawling from the earth and looming over Darrington like a titan, the rise and fall of the era of great beasts told through a tapestry in the crags and snow-filled crevasses on the face of the mountains, the electric pulse of every cell and nerve in my body... Way harder to describe in as few words.
That sounds awe inspiring.
Micro dosing is like taking a caffeine pill that doesn't make you shake and increases your mental acuity / memory recall. I usually do 5 days on, 2 days off per week and 6 weeks on, one week off.
Everyone i know who started taking them regularly refers to them as "smart pills".
Then again, where i live shrooms are legal and extremely common. You can buy them at head shops or the gas station, but those can be sketchy lol
Nice. I’ve heard micro dosing is the way.
It definitely is. I get a custom blend from my brother, it has something like 8 or 9 different mushrooms in it including lion's mane, reishi, and cordyceps. I know one of the psychedelic mushrooms in it are enigma, but I forget the other one he puts in there.
I usually don't take mushrooms recreationally, I've had enough macro doses in my time. But the micro doses are a major life improvement.
I felt like I was
Infinitely shitting but
Nothing would come out
Definitely do them while camping in beautiful nature, never at a party, the first time.
My first was at Big Sur, CA. Amazing, except it turned out I spent part of the time looking out at the ocean while sitting on poison ivy. So I spent a week or so after that looking like sloth from the Goonies, but it was worth it
Ah man, poison ivy?! I thought the latter part of mine was bad. I got tricked into leaving the camp by friends who said they were going to a fire lookout, which sounded awesome, but they slipped in a trip to a restaurant and a gun store, none of which I wanted any part of because I was peaking, so I opted to lay down in the back of a Ford Ranger on a 90 degree day for three hours in awe of the world while my ego eroded and I became a gondola.
Yeah I’ve gotten that before, feels like you’re listening to a conch shell. In the eternal words of Neil Young “the mighty diesel whines”. I’d love to work with locomotives, being a conductor or brake man is a childhood dream
I’m in mechanical and it was very cool at first but it’s turned out to be a bit of a bummer. The part that fucks with me is the disregard for the craftsmanship and doing things right. It’s not about maintaining a functional railroad - it’s just about the numbers and money unfortunately.
The ASMR rig
The best sound ever
I've spent time doing that on boats. Gets to the point that you'll wake up if they cut off. The silence doesn't sound right.
That sounds amazing honestly.
Is there any kind of internet or are you just raw dogging it?
100% raw dog, and you usually don’t have service either. Luckily people got wise and started bringing starlinks which I’m currently bumming. The office trailer I work in has internet though but it can’t reach to the living trailers
I have a starlink mini, best thing EVER
Here's a question for Op. I watched a video on YouTube called. How oil rig crew eat,sleep and shower in the middle of the ocean. Brutal routines is the channel. So my question is since all oil rigs are different I assume. How often does it take you to fall asleep.
Depends on the day, I’ve worked 36 hours straight before and was hallucinating, fell asleep before I hit the bed. I’m usually off between 7-8pm and up at 430-530 so I try to get to bed by 9pm to get my 8 hours - I don’t always follow this and have done weeks only getting 3-4 hours of sleep, I know I’m a sleep deprived bitch by the end of that well lol
Jfc man
Get a pink bowl (ifitsnotpinkitwontbethesame)
I don’t know why but literally every single stallion trailer in North America has these pink bowls
that is cool! Have you ever seen the tv show Landman?
I watched the first episode and had to stop, too cringey and very misrepresentative
So you're saying you don't nearly die or get in fights with the cartel on a daily basis?
That's lame.
Lmao, unfortunately no cartels out here. The nearly dying part is more accurate but for a lot less dumb shit. Thankfully my job is pretty safe, but I see helicopters doing lifeflights at least once a week
What is the most common reason people get emergency flight in helicopter?
Pretty common with any show tbf.
Most military movies are hard to watch and I can’t imagine there are many lawyers who can stomach more than a few episodes of Suits sober.
Real life jobs just aren’t very entertaining for audiences.
Yeah good point, I’m sure anybody who has a job with a TV show based around their industry says the same thing
Nice digs!
Dare I ask how much you make?
Depends on how much I work, I get paid per diem. If I work 30 days straight my take home is around ~15k for the month, but I usually work half that and take a few months off every year to not burn out. Average is 100-150k after taxes but I am one of the top field geologists in the industry so paid higher than average. Company men and directional drillers make about double that, hands make about half. Though I have met some hands that made bank they’re just worked to the bones and looked 50 at 25
Is there any company going through a hiring cycle right now? I’m a mechanical engineer laid off from the semiconductor industry and would like to transition to oil and gas
Unfortunately price of oil has been down for a bit and operators out here are tightening their belts again. On the upside, there is always a need for good drilling engineers, but that usually either requires climbing the ranks or going to a drilling school to learn and transfer over. It can be a tough circle to break into if you don’t know anybody but there will always be good paying jobs with openings
Just curious, if anyone has a medical emergency out there, is there a clinic or a doctor(s) or paramedic on-site to help? It sounds like you're working in a very remote, isolated area. And being that overworked as you describe it has got to have some negative effects on your health.
lol no we don’t have anything onsite but you better know your first aid and stop the bleed just in case. The motto is ‘baindaids or body bags’. It’s either a small injury and you walk it off, or you’re missing a leg and getting lifeflighted to the hospital. I have a coworker that broke his hand and finished out his shift before driving to the hospital, was still at work the next morning. Very few injuries that are serious enough to need immediate medical attention but non life threatening
There’s no safety department or division attaché? Edit: spelling
Depends on your proximity to a town, further out you are the less likely you are to have a safety inspector from the state. Like any jobsite we have to comply with basic safety guidelines, every single site has a JSA, and safety is always the #1 concern on a rig this large. The further out and the smaller the rig, the more that goes by the wayside, to where there are tiny single stacks out there with essentially 0 safety. But no, no personnel on site dedicated to safety, that’s just the whole crew on a rig like this. A rig this large, we have safety meetings every single morning and evening at 530 before shift change
i genuinely could consider wrapping my head around this line of work but im too addicted to using video games to relax after work that id go mad (im guessing no gaming pc allowed)
Naw you can 100% bring a computer or console out here, you won’t have any energy to use it but there’s nothing stopping you from gaming after work other than no internet. But lots of starlinks to bum from
If it’s an offshore oil rig or ship it would be hard but doable, I worked on a supply ship and I was able to play Skyrim on my laptop when time between watches permitted. But you can’t leave electronics plugged in long cause of the power surges with the ships generators. Also gaming during heavy seas had its own problems. I assume oil rigs are somewhat similar. Also I was allowed to have my own personal laptop and phone (flip phone at the time).
Luckily our power is stable here as long as the company man remembers to order diesel for the camp generators and everything is GFCI, a lot of our guys bring their consoles out. Only time weather has been an issue is when I was in Thunder basin and we had lightning storms hit the rig so we had to power down. I’ve never done offshore but I’d imagine the biggest difficulty would be getting it there, since I know a lot of crews in the gulf are flown they probably have weight limits on baggage
Thank you for sharing
What do you actually do day-to-day?
I am a wellsite geologist, I collect samples of rock and gas and a shitload of other data and interpolate it to characterize the oil reservoirs, understand large scale basin structure, and how it ties in to reservoir quality. Also serve as the bridge for engineering and geology, i take all that data to characterize the geo mechanics and how it affects drilling to better optimize well bore placement or drilling parameters or mud properties. We also optimize well bore placement based on reservoir quality and how it will frac. My day to day is catching samples, collecting data, staring into a microscope, interpolating how a thousand tracks of squiggly lines tie into the rock we’re drilling miles down. The data collected is both used in real time and taken by the reservoir engineers/office geos to make decisions about how and where to drill the best wells.
Geo here. In the FIFO business in metals mining. Is this what being a mudlogger is? Or is this a few steps further up? Not trying to change I like hard rock and seeing gold. The cabins look similar to my site, but we have discount used north slope ones.
Yeah I’m a mudlogger by trade, my company is just doing a high level of geology and interpretation relative to the industry, we’re very intertwined with the headquarter and ops geos, and even have been ops geo for smaller operators. We also are doing outcrop and core trips regularly since the basin deposition is so complex. We also do helium. I only make this distinction because in the 90s and 2000s the mudlogging industry turned to crap and lost a lot of respect, a lot of non geologists out there and I’m incredibly proud of the work we do. In fact, I’m on a pilot hole and will be sitting in on wireline tomorrow, coring in a few days.
Cool! I thought you guys didn't ever get core lol. Have a couple former O&G guys I work with, but they were hard on the geophysics side and pretty office bound it sounds like. Glad you like it I've never heard anything positive from people I've known who've done it. And from what you're saying in other posts you're not stuck in no where Texas too! I don't think I could ever do O&G but I really do wanna get a tour on a rig sometime. They seem like crazy ass giant intricate machines, and the mining industry makes me feel like I'm a little cog in a big machine too. It's cool stuff that a lot of my environmental buddies side eye me for. Hope you can balance the whack ass schedule it's crazy working those 12 hour days for a month straight.
Would u mind telling us what life is like living there? Looks interesting.
Mostly just work, I wake up at around 5-530, my tour (twelve hour) starts at 6, work all day, usually get off by 7, shower, eat, and I’m in bed. It’s not bad but after 2-3 weeks working every day you’re ready to go home. Being out here is great though, a lot of cool people, sometimes feels like the Wild West when you’re on smaller jobs, I did a well in Kentucky not too long ago drilling in someone’s front yard, I walked around location in crocs with no hard hat - very freeing feeling when you’re used to FRs and steel toes and JSAs. You get to see and do tons of cool shit with machinery that will delete your existence with 0 effort
That’s sick. Is what you do a difficult job to get into? Do you like what you do and recommend it?
My job specifically is a wellsite geologist which requires at minimum a geology degree, but we’re hiring new grads constantly so not too hard. I am absolutely obsessed with my job because I love geology to my core and I get to see rocks that are several miles down that no other human has ever seen. and trying to piece together deposition and reservoirs is like the ultimate jigsaw puzzle. This job isn’t for everyone but i love what I do
Do get breaks? Lunch time? What do you take for lunch? Or do you go back to your place? Any beer?
lol no breaks. Lunch is if I have time, but I often choose not to eat because my hands are covered in chemicals, I wait till I can shower. I’m currently 2.5 hours away from town so no going home for lunch, I live on site for the duration of the well which is anywhere between 5 days and a month. Beer is an absolute no go on site you will get ran off location in a heartbeat.
Thanks for the reply, I meant go back to your trailer for lunch. I wouldn't be able to go 10 plus hrs without eating
I work rotating 12 hour shifts so my night hand is sleeping while I work. My office trailer has a full kitchen in it though, I just never use it
Nice what rig you on?
Currently on H&P 520 in Utah, I’m contractor though so I’m constantly rotating around the rigs. Probably on a dozen or more every year
Nice. God speed, be safe out there!
So howd you get into this work?
My BIL owns the geology company I work for, timing was perfect with him starting the company and me getting a geology degree. Didn’t think I’d be doing this till senior year, I interned for him and was instantly hooked
W BIL. A geology degree isn’t ideal, so it’s good that you got this job.
He is the greatest dude I know. I was planning on doing geology for the USGS making probably 1/2 what I do in work that Id hate (prob surveying)
Damn bro I gotta say that’s pretty cozy looking. Stay safe out there 🫡
I remember those days. I’m a consultant but over on the Frac side. We stayed in mancamps all over wtx when I worked at SLB. Been in the patch since 2011
How does one get into youre profession at an older age in life
He’s a geologist, so not easily unless you wanna go back to college and get a degree for it lol
That's a lot more room than I ever thought you'd get on an oil rig. Not sure why, but I always assumed it was like Navy conditions. Are you low on the hierarchy or management?
Hey it beats commercial fishing boats
lol living in the dog house.
That’s awesome
very cozy
I don't understand what y'all determine surviving
I honestly wasn’t sure if this fit the sub or not, based on a lot of the other posts I thought it did, but this is definitely a nice ass living trailer
I've lived on much worse that I'm not sure would fit
Yeah I do feel a bit bad tbf after seeing the post of the guy sleeping on boxes in the snow, definitely not the same, but this sub is such a mix I was inspired after seeing the Australian miners camp
https://preview.redd.it/uqodn3p6kb6g1.jpeg?width=4982&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb7c8c1de8401fdadc3f99dae532d0cd3c2248b9
Keep turning to the right brother. Frac is right behind you
That's huge, enjoy
Looks like a good deal!
That definitely makes it feel like a home away from home.
Never had envy for the oil guys. Good for u I’m sure the money is decent as hell
You hot bunk just like the attack subs...
The setup ain’t too bad
Doesn’t look too bad. Canada?
Nice digs tbh
West Texas basin area?
Took me till picture 3 to realize you meant a literal oil rig, not a smoking device oil rig.
Still pretty cool. How does one get into that line of work?
How do you handle medical emergencies? Or medical stuff in general? Do you take the day off to see a dentist?
Y'all hiring?
For some reason I assumed this was at sea
Looks like WTX, worked out there for a Instrumentation company for 6 years. Don't miss it one bit.
Where are you?
I want an IT job doing this
Unfortunately I’m the closest thing to IT on this rig (office worker under 50 lol). Pason Tech is the closest real job though, but they do a shitload more than just computers. Most operators have in house IT at their headquarters though
Well the onshore guys don't get high pay.
lol where did you hear this? Offshore definitely makes more but has a way higher barrier for entry and insurance costs are insane. Company men, Directional drillers, and even some MWDs are making 250k+ doing 2 weeks on 2 weeks off. The office guys at headquarters? Even more. I work maybe 30% of the days in a year and am at 100k+.
It’s giving Landman in the best possible way