So how does one leave the oil field?

True that. With the crash in oil prices, you can tell right away who's living off the oilfield money (its usually the guy that gets his house and pickup repo'd).

 

Yep. All the laid off flowback hands that had those brand new Ram 2500 diesels all lifted up and stuff are walking around these days.

 

I talked to so many guys on the patch who were so proud of there $850 per month truck payments.

My biggest mistake was using my nest egg to shore up the boat when things went south. I saw the end but I tried hard to hold on believing that things would get better. Should've cut and ran. Oh well live and learn.

unloader

 

Hindsight is always 20/20. I bought my first house literally 2 months prior to the oil prices starting to drop. Property value has already dropped over 15% in the last year. Oil will come back up, its just a matter of time and weathering the storm.

 

When I finally said it was over I reminded myself that I now have one year of oilfield experience hauling water and will be ready when it booms again.

unloader

 

Its easy to forget how it is bouncing down the lease roads, or squirreling through a foot of mud for 10 miles in the middle of nowhere at 2 am a stones throw from the border hahaha. I once broke down on a pad, half way loaded, at 1 am called supervisor to let him know. As I'm talking to him 5 guys walk by carrying large bags. So of course I tell him this and in a urgent voice he says "lock the doors" lol. The oilfield is great during a boom because youre making big bucks and companies offer lots of perks to retain drivers. But when it ain't booming it ain't worth it, no OT, Issues with the trucks, cramming company housing. Just my opinion but the boom is over and ain't coming back like it was for a very long time.

 

Ugh the lease roads! LOL. I was pretty lucky as I originally started in the Karnes City area and those lease roads are night and day better than the roads around Carrizo Springs. I transferred to my company's Dilley yard about this time last year and I can specifically remember coming home sore from bouncing around in the truck from the roads.

Seemed like the slower you went the worse it was haha. Also I don't think I truly understood how tired I was until I got out. I have a pretty normal schedule now (weekends off, solar powered driver) and I look back and wonder how the hell I did that lol.

I'm sure the BOOM won't be back how it was, but it will probably BOOM again. The only issue is all the companies that figure out how to stay afloat will be doing so by learning to be more efficient, which could translate into less driver pay even if it does boom again. As always, just my two cents.

unloader

 

Yeah also a lot of pipelines being built,a lot more disposals and infrastructure. Also a lot of guys live in the area and without many opportunities other than OTR they'll keep working for like 12 bucks an hour and no housing. Plus the Saudis said they wont let oil prices get so hi again because they were losing market share. But who knows lol.

 

Heard Iraq oil is moving again, convoys of tankers headed to he US.

 

Give it a few years. The Saudis are already starting to hurt.