do you want to go to work in the ND oil feilds

I always see lots of questions about people wanting to come work in the oil fields. I figured i might start a post about my oil field experiences.

i have seen all weather from 100 degrees to -20 (been living in nd for years so used to the weather) but when your standing on top of some tanks 20 feet tall in the middle of a open field in driving wind blowing rain or snow. your getting soaking wet or freezing cold it brings a whole new meaning to what nd weather can offer.

I have wallowed threw mud almost to your knees dragging hoses you get covered in mud soaking wet with no readily available shower. (witch will lead to another topic later) I have had to be drug up muddy hills hauling fresh water to frac sites by a bulldozer.

I have been dispatched to suck the bottom out of a pit that is ready to be filled in. they want every drop of water removed that can be which means sucking up muddy slurry with oil and everything else in it. it can be some pretty nasty stuff. you must avoid sucking up stuff that will be a pain to get rid of later. sometimes you must almost refuse to load some stuff that you will never be able to get rid of at disposal sites. always try to keep your hoses as clean as possible because whatever gets on the hoses will in turn get on you.

I have had to take care of bodily functions that just cant wait in the middle of a open field as there are often times not even a out house or porta poty available. make sure you keep some TP in your truck. you will never realize how nice a shower and a bathroom is until you become a oil feild driver. There was even one instance it was right at sun rise about 4:30am i pull into a well site and my morning movment was inpending and could no wait. so i grab my tp and head out into the near by grassy feild. I start to do my bisness and look to one side of me and see a baby calf about 20 feet away and kinda give off a smile (gotta try to enjoy the little things right) well around this time i hear some trampling off to my other side turn my head and mamma is charging at me at full speed. this leaves me trying to pull up my britches and running towards the truck as fast as i can.

You will be tired, ALOT. you put in a lot of hours always whenever you have a opportunity to sleep take it. this is one thing i cannot stress enough. You need to know your body as well, if you are too tired to continue safely you need to do whatever you have to to catch a couple zz's witch will normally only be in few hour stretches at a time. if you have to call dispatch to get someone to cover your workload while you do this do it. however catching a couple hours whenever the opportunity presents itself can normally avoid this. weather it be at 4am or noon. or even if you don't necessarily feel tired at that moment you will normally be at some point of sleep depredation and be able to fall asleep at any time you lay down. it is easy to get caught up in the money and want to run past your safe point, you need to learn to recognize this and run safe as #1 priority.

There are times you might end up sitting in a remote location for over 24 hours. always make sure you carry a supply of food and water with you at all times. a large inverter fridge microwave laptop or tv/dvd player will make this time much more bearable. i also have mobile broadband internet, works well although alot of times you will deal with poor signal and dial up speeds but still is great for taking away the feeling of isolation from the rest of the world when in remote locations. A lot of the time you spend sitting on remote locations will serve as a great time to catch up on sleep as well.

Showers and grooming. sometimes you may have to go days working in dirty conditions without showering, shower facility may be hard to come by at times. this is one thing i feel is a basic human necessity. always carry some baby wipes and a electric razor. a shave and a good wipe down can make you feel a bit more human again but nothing ever replaces a shower. remember your not shutting down at TS's every night were you have facility's to take care of such needs. you will also be working in dirty conditions which adds to this basic need.

unwanted showers. Always make sure when you go to disconnect your hoses that there is no pressure on them or you may end up with a very dirty shower containing god only knows what kind of harmful stuff. installing a bleader valve on your fittings off your truck can help eliminate this risk. also make sure that your hoses and fittings are in good shape and the clamps and bands are in good shape, i have seen/had hoses break or come apart while unloading not only showering you with unwanted god knows what. it also turns your hose into a dangerous projectile capable of inflicting serious injury.

Spills. you must always take great caution to never spill anything even if you are hauling fresh water, it is good to get in the habit of never spilling a drop. couple drops is bad a cup is too much. its not only a environmental concern but depending on what is spilled can result in costly clean up and even termination, iv seen it happen. you need to take great care to make sure nothing is left in your hoses before disconnecting. and take great care to insure you don't spill anything. before driving off locations make sure all valves and vents are tightly sealed. if in doubt of what to do other drivers will almost always lend a hand or advice.

Directions. you will often find yourself receiving poor directions, often times there are no street signs and plain wrong directions or directions that are to vague, when possible check your dispatch directions against a good paper map, trucker maps are about useless a good county specific map and some state specific maps can be a valuable tool. you can also take these maps and draw in lease roads and location names for future reference. when being dispatched to new locations if you know another driver who has been there before it does not hurt to give them a call and ask to confirm or give more specific directions. in my experience almost all drivers are more than willing to help each other out. the longer you have worked a specific area the easyer it gets to find your way around.


( i will add more to this thread later) also if you have any more specific questions i would be happy to do my best to answer them.

 

pre-post mvi's in the oilfield. lets face it your day normally starts and ends when the clock hits midnight. however pre-trips are ever more important in the oil field because of conditions you/your truck are subjected to. so this is what i do. whenever waking up from a nap do a quick walk around. this serves two purposes. you will spot anything obviously out of place broken ect. it also gets the blood moving and helps you become more alert. whenever unloading i do a proper pre trip, check break linings slack adjusters ect look for rocks stuck in your breaks, check tires and inflation, (i do this both during the loading and unloading processes) easier to spot when there is weight on the truck and are much more likely to get tire punctures than OTR driving. check all hydrolic hoses for leaks skuff or rubbing check air lines listen for leaks, check lights ect. cannot really check under thehood fluids at this time as the truck needs to be running to operate pto. under hood fluids normaly get checked at fuel stops.

house keeping. you are operating in dirty conditions and i cannot stand a dirty truck, i normally clean after doing paperwork and such any time i am loading, keeping up with cleaning small sections of the truck during every loading process keeps things from getting out of control. also any time i am on standby i take at least a few mins to do housekeeping duty's. grocery bags make great trashbags. when i was driving a volvo i would hang one off the passenger side arm rest. now that i drive a pete i hang it off the passenger side door handle. Throw out garbage at every fuel stop. or any time a proper trash can/dumpster is available

 

its a 160 bbl trailer. loading with the vac pump though 157 is about the most you can get in it, that trailer also has a 4 inch roper gear pump on it using that it is possible to get the full 160 in it.

when hauling fresh water in below freezing conditions when unloading be sure to completely blow all the water out of the tank. and open the valve back up after unhooking your hoses. leave the valve open that way you don't have to be worried about the valve freezing when empty, you cannot do this with production water with the risk of having some spillage when doing this. with freshwater and production water try to never park loaded if at all avoidable. although production is a lot less likely to freeze. be very careful if you are loaded with production water and you do have a valve get frozen because i have heard story's of people blowing up there trailers heating the valve. also it does not take extended heating of the valve to thaw. a quick heat with a torch and then wait for the heat to work its way in, over heating can damage the seals of the valve.

also be sure to dump your scrubber pod every load in below freezing conditions both production and fresh

also regarding the ball valve on the truck i have seen a couple busted noses and loose teeth and a lot of close calls, especially when unloading into a manifold that has other trucks unloading into it at the same time. i also even after i know i have relived all the pressure off the hose i still get a firm grip on the hose normally under my armpit as close as i can to the end of the hose and unlock one ear at a time, this gives you aditional safty measures. one. being that if there is any pressure on the hose it should bleed off or be audible when unlocking the first ear. and second gives you a firm grip close to your body to absorb the force if the hose does become a projectile and keeps it away from your face.

 

I do enjoy the job and the money. It can be challenging at times in meany differnt ways but i do enjoy the job a lot. the money is well worth while as well. no where else in this industry that i know of can a company driver make 12k per month. But I can say its not for everyone, in the time iv been in the oil field i have seen a lot of people come and go.

 

put your nose to the ground I'm sure it wont take you too long to turn something up.

we have been doing some frac work in Dickinson i mostly work near Stanley nd