Newbie taking a chance on West Texas

there is a lot of work in texas spent a couple months in san angelo. and yes there are companies that will hire and train you. don't make the mistake I did [take your wife with you] the money is there and plenty of it just don't expect to start out on top. if your going to midland or oddesa area send bickerdave a message he will help you out in that area, also check out job postings on forum. good luck to you

 

Best of luck to you. I hope everything works out for you.

Pete

 

Good luck Walrus please keep us posted!

 

Hello,
I am pretty confident that you will find some work over here even without experience.
For jobs, Midland / Odessa got some for sure, you also got Big Spring on I20. Further south , you'll have a lot in Big Lake (which is basically an oilfield city since forever, LOTS of yards there)
San Angelo have more and more yards as well along 67 in Barnhart, and Mertzon.
The housing though in the busy areas will be swamped and expensive.

For the Hazmat, most of the companies will require you to have the 'hardcopie' and the fingerprinting deal can take a while to go through - up to 3 months.

50% of oilfield work is to know where you are going in the lease and stuff - no road signs, no gps, no maps , sketchy directions , not really how the truck work or the trailer (its important yes but not as finding the right well or tank batterie.

 

Frenchie is correct. Amazing how you can get lost on a ranch. Of course you might have gone 15+ miles from main road while in there at night. Miss one cattle guard and you are off on nice trip. lol done that. And I was leaving a live frac. Got on other side of hill and couldn't see a light for an hour. Lots of backing practice. Finally saw a water wienie and waved him down. Had managed to find correct road. But was going wrong way. Showed me shortcut and 6 miles later was back on highway. After that I got a roll of odd colored flagging tape. Around Big Lake, Rankin couple others if I thought I was going to have trouble after dark I flagged any turn I needed to. Just got my own to stand out from others that can confuse you.
Good luck. You'll do great.

 

When I was living in Odessa I worked for Texas Energy hauling water. At the time they were taking guys with only learners permit. I had no complaints with the company, and would recommend them.

 

The flagging is double edged because every rig move, they flag the route to get in , get out to the new loc so you might end up with very colorful bushes lol. (wanna start counting flags on the Rocker B ? )
You better off using some landmarks or drawing your own maps and follow odometer. But then again drive day you will find it, drive night you won't.
Sometimes the locations are labeled, sometimes not, a lot of places they drill and build faster than the signs are made...

Coordinate will tell you where the location is at, but not how to get there. Google Earth might give you an idea of where the thing is at as well but then the lease road ain't on it.
you can go from Big Lake to Barnhart just by using lease roads - not the fastest way for sure but doable.

Don't worry much though I mean, if you pay attention to where you are going the first couple months, you'll find your way easy after that, going mostly to the same places.
And everybody gets lost, not a matter of if but when.

 

Definitely make sure you have an AT&T phone. Even Verizon has a large deadzone out by Brady, tx. Alot of drivers use straight talk with the AT&T sim for prepay. Download a GPS program like OsmAnd that uses downloaded maps. And pack a good spot light like the stanley LED one from wally world that charges with the cigar lighter plug. Get a hardhat LED light at wallyworld with the flashing red for the rear. A good pair of boots like Georgia mud loggers or something your comfortable in. The disposals are most always flooded with B/S you have to stand in and its slick and nsty.