Halliburton Frac/Acid/Cementing

No, Seattle is right (for the most part) and you guys insulting him are off-base because not only is the guy helping, but he's giving pretty solid info.

What you and other non-oilfield-workers don't understand is that just because someone is getting PAID for 150 hours (or however many), that does NOT mean they actually worked 150 hours (or however many). You see, many outfits pay for sleep time too, so you're paid around the clock for 24 hours/day every single day you work even when you're only working 8-15 hours. Others offer a daily per diem that equates to another few hours of work. Others pay for shuttle time, bonuses, etc. Sometimes they just need you on standby and you'll sit around, eat catered food, and get paid for it. Point is that wracking up those kind of hours, especially pay-wise, is manageable in a variety of oilfield gigs.

This is a pretty big distinction that a lot of people with no experience in the industry don't understand.

As an example, I spent 17 hours on the clock yesterday. However, I actually worked for maybe 3 hours out of that 17, and spent about five hours sleeping in an air conditioned shuttle. That's not me being lazy or anything and that kind of routine isn't unique to my position, that's just how the oilfield works. There's a lot of downtime, and a lot of pay even when you aren't actually working.

Again, if you think Seattle's numbers are so ridiculously impossible, you might want to do a bit of research into what work in the oilfields is actually like.

 

We're trying to do our research, right here. I know it's annoying to those already in the industry to answer the same questions over and over, but as long as time goes on, there will be newcomers to any field of endeavor. If a worker is getting paid for more hours than he actually works, that's pretty important to the equation being discussed, no? We can't know which person gets paid on what sort of system. You just said it varies by employer.

I'm sorry if my comments came across as insulting. They were only a commentary on an apparently nonexistent person who could get by on two hours of sleep per night.

 

Sometimes people are on duty fracing 54 hours straight. You might get stranded on location by a flood for 3 days until you are helicoptered out(recently in s Texas w the company I work for.. not me though)

The money in the oilfield is in overtime. You will likely start at a LOWER base per hour than you are currently making! If you don't want to kiss your non work life goodbye for the paycheck oilfield probably is not a good fit for you. Not trying to be rude but you've been asking the same questions and responding with the same incredulous reaction to the answers for months now. If you think everyone who is out here doing it every day is lying to you then please by all means find out for yourself.

 

Likewise, I wasn't trying to be insulting, nor was I doubting an individuals ability to accrue that many hours in a week. An individual doesn't need oilfield experience to do basic mathematics.

 

Ticket time can make your hours look a little strange!

 

I had half a day today for training. That means tomorrow we have an 18 hour daybwithba yard time of 3am.

 

The nonexistent person you speak of is me.. I work off of 2 hours of sleep all the time. I do cased hole wireline services. We work right next to frac. We go in and perforate, then they pump through the perforations. We repeat the process until the well is fully completed... I have worked a job before that lasted 60 hours straight. You read correctly. The whole frac crew was there with us the whole time.

What makes this possible is a number of factors. First, as others have mentioned, you don't work the whole time. You take little breaks. When frac is pumping I am sleeping, and when we are running our perforating guns into the hole frac is sleeping. You get anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of sleep at a time, this just depends on how long frac pumps each stage, and how deep we have to go to perforate.

I earn hourly and bonus. $19/hour plus 2% bonus. Example: work 75 hours on the week and bill $75,000 (average week) I earn a little more than 3250 for the week (we also get per diem). Frac pay would look more like this: $19/hour plus $100 well bonus. Example: 110 hours plus 4 wells (average week) frac hand earns a little more than 2400 for the week (they also get per diem). I have been doing wireline for 2 years and earn more than what you would earn starting out, so my pay is higher. A frac hand and a wireline hand will earn about the same in the first year. You will work more hours in frac but you will not get dirty and sweat like a wireline hand. When frac is on the well the work they do is basically walking around checking their equipment, looking for leaks and communicating potential problems. It's not hard.. The only time frac really works hard is when they fix their pumps and rig up/rig down. Otherwise it's ZZZzzzzZzzzzz.. When wireline is on the well aside from checking the vehicles you are also building perf guns, breaking them down, redressing tools, maintaining your wireline, dealing with grease, ect. It's a pain in the ###.

As far as acid goes, you drive a tanker full of acid and back up to a frac job and tie into the manifold to spot acid. It's really easy. Just lots of hours, kind of like part of frac.

Cementing is basically backing up to a drilling rig that has just set in casing and tying in your 2 inch pipes from your truck to the rig. Then you just turn on the pumps and go to sleep for like 10 hours or however long it takes to cement that well. Another super easy job. Just lots of hours.

The majors pay on the low end of the scale, the smaller outfits pay the most. The majors will train you to treat the job though, that is not likely at the smaller outfits.

 

Thanks for the useful info, and welcome to the forums! I appreciate you giving us some details on how the numbers are generated.

 

Doing my physical and background is being conducted for halli as we speak.....or type lol

 

Never saw wireline busting their humps any harder than frac/cement/sand haulers others unless there was a problem as stated above. Up side you get to play with explosives. Rest of post is dead on. Work until job is done-or sands out and they have to bring in coiled tubing or others to try and fix it. Then it's sleep for a day or two. More money in wireline and coiled tubing. Hauling sand ruined by throat cutters from all around nation. Frac hands drive out-rig up-then watch their rig during frac. Some operate kings that hold sand. Take orders over headset from bosses in trailer running job and monitoring computors. Open and close hopper doors to move sand to conveyor belts. To mixers and pumps. Lot of standing watching unless there is problem. Then it's get it fixed now! Blow out a hose or gasket and everyone scatters until problem is shut down. Only had that happen once. Was blowing 150 or so feet in air. No one hurt on that one.