Maybe Some Opportunities In Four Corners?

Well, I wasn't sure where to post this, but since I'm a wannabe, still weeks out from school, and this is speculation, I figured I'd put it here.

Montezuma County, Colorado is sitting on a major deposit of shale gas. Bill Barrett has been drilling exploratory wells for a couple of years; there's one about a half mile from my place. Of course they won't say much about their plans.

During the last week, Rain For Rent has been hauling dozens of tanks and all kinds of pipe into a yard right along Hwy. 491. There have been convoys of trucks rolling into the place. They also have an ad online, looking for a manager at $120K/yr. - 80K base plus commission.

I don't know what the story is, but someone somewhere must think something's gonna shake loose. This stuff will be going somewhere, hauled on trucks, and where those trucks go, there will be others to follow.

I'm always looking ahead, trying to figure out where I'll land and what I'll do, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to have a nice little local gas boom going on when I graduate.

Gossip and speculation, along with informed or uninformed opinions, or facts, (if such things exist), would be most welcome!

 

Yeah, I definitely plan on the endorsements - tanker and Haz Mat. There are tankers running out here all the time as it is, and things are slow right now. If something shakes loose, it may get busy.

There've been a few local jobs advertised in the area recently, but I expect I'll have to run OTR for a year of experience, because that's what most of them seem to want. Maybe if they get going on the drilling and production and there's more demand for drivers, they'll ease up on the required experience.

 

Yeah, when I get into school in January, I'll ask my instructor more about what's going on with the industry around here.

I'm already figuring on having to grind out that year of OTR for experience, and that may work out OK, as even if this gas play turns out to be real, it'll take some time for them to get into full swing.

Dang insurance company weasels...between this trucking thing, paying my health insurance, farm policy and all of the vehicles I own (too many!), they're always into my pockets one way or another!

I gotta admit, I saw some threads pop up about that crazy Wild West sounding deal up there in the North Dakota oil fields, and that sounds more like what I'd like to do than haul through the big cities all over the country. So if I could do something like that closer to home here, it might work out OK.

 

I don't know if there's ever been any kind of OTR industry down here. 160 and 491 are always busy with tractor-trailers, but of course the freight is passing through.

I figure to get a year of OTR experience, I'll have to find a company that'll take on a trainee, and let me take my truck home with me, since I don't think there are any terminals nearby. After that, I can look at local or regional jobs. These are things I learned already from reading and asking questions here! There are always rigs parked at people's places around here; I'm going to start to pay attention to whose names are on the trucks, and check out their websites.

I'm really more interested in what kind of local demand we might see if energy development picks up. The CO2 fields here already seem to generate a lot of traffic (flatbeds, belly dumps and tankers). If the gas drilling takes off, I expect to see a lot more of that, and a lot of materials coming in as well. There's no rail line down here, so it all comes in by truck.

But, I don't know a lot about how all of this stuff comes about; which is why I started the thread.