# Oil/Gas Companies Scramble to Hire Engineers ...



## Guest (Sep 3, 2007)

My wife pointed this article out to me over the weekend ... Companies scramble to hire engineers 

When I explained that exotic locations meant ... the middle of BFE working 24-hr rotating shifts she suddenly lost interest. :lmao: :lmao:

I was talking to some of my colleagues that were old oil patch geologists that were pick-me-ups from the big layoffs. It is interesting to see how thier interpretations and decision-making differs (often times significantly) from those geologists (and engineers) who have spent thier whole life in a beaur-oh-cratic job. Risk-takers vs. Risk-adverse ...

I would have like to have done work like this but I think I am getting too old to be run like that ldtimer: ld-025: Probably a great starter job for someone coming straight out of college.

JR


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## Dleg (Sep 3, 2007)

The hardest I have ever worked in my life was in the oil field as a well logging engineer, which entails running geophysical instruments into newly-drilled ("open hole") wells, and other types of instruments and mechanical services (including explosives) in completed "cased" wells. I worked myself ragged, staying awake for days at a time (personal record - 84 hours without sleep) and an incredible level of stress. Imagine being in effective control of a billion dollar oil platform (no one can work while you're in the hole) and getting your radioactive-source containing instrument stuck in a well that has already cost several million dollars to drill, and stand-by time is racking up at the rate of several hundred thousands of dollars per day while you "fish" your instrument out from 12,000 feet. At the time, I imagined that the only jobs that could possibly be more stressful would have been a combat soldier or an ER doctor. Every job I've had since then has seemed like a vacation.

It was a fantastic experience, though, and crammed something like 10 years of work into a 4 1/2 year period, with all kinds of high-tech equipment and tough, exciting locations (offshore was the best). Whew! I wouldn't want to do it again, though, That kind of field work is best for when you're right out of college.

However, working directly for the oil companies (rather than a service company) might be somewhat less stressful. The only thing that sucks is that it is so unpredictable - maybe next year the price of oil will drop, or production will go down, and they lay off 20% of the workforce. "Boom" workers seem to get screwed. When I started, in 1991 (when oil rose from about $19 to $24 a barrel), the main reason they hired me (along with a whole batch of new engineers) was to get rid of a bunch of old "boom time" engineers who had learned lazy short-cut methods of work back in the day when things were really going hard. They wanted some new blood who would do things by the book, so they hired us, made the old guys train us (sort of - they really weren't that good), and then fired them all. Somewhat uncomfortable, as you might imagine.

It's a cutthroat industry, to be sure. But there's geat money to be made - as long as you realize you're going to work for it.

Also, "exotic" locations probably means Iraq and Nigeria. Even back when I was in the field, the highest dollar jobs went to people who were willing to work in dangerous, Middle-Eastern or African shitholes. Even back then there were plenty of stories of kidnappings and beheadings over there, even in "ally" countries like Yemen and Saudi. The best money in the US was offshore - for which there was only Alaska (best), California (2nd best but very few jobs), and the Gulf.


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