Newbie taking a chance on West Texas

Of all the info that I'm getting and hearing, $2000/wk might be stretching it...especially considering that you have no experience. The best that I have come across in the San Angelo area is hauling crude at $80k/yr, and that only equals about $1500/wk. Everything else seems to be paying anywhere between $18 and $24 an hour. So more realistically, you'd probably be bringing home $800-1100$/wk, but I'm sure somebody that actually does the job can give you a more accurate answer.

 

i've never heard anyone say they prefer at&t out here in the permian basin. seems like every time i was out on a job and didnt have service, my coworkers with verizon always had service. this was consistently the case and among everyone i worked with it was common knowledge verizon has much better coverage out here. i have dead zones in my own ###### house in odessa with at&t. ridiculous. don't know why i haven't switched yet.

 

and yeah, don't expect 2k a week. or prepare to be disappointed. not your first year. no way, sorry. i was making 21/hr and never saw a $2k week. 1500 was a good week. 1300 was my avg. and that was doing hard labor on top of hauling hazmat.

 

That is my experience as well....especially for newbies. There are a few who take to the job like a duck to water.... they can knock off $2,000 weeks fairly consistently. But, even those guys dont hit that number EVERY week. Most of the time, the guys who are doing it are pushing themselves and everything else to the limits. I just dont believe pushing that hard is healthy...or safe. My opinion is that you if you want to make that kind of money...find a company where you can make it without pushing so hard...or find a job with a better pay scale. Work smarter, not harder.

 

Understandable... i guess the point is to get some experience and work my way up and get myself into a spot where people can see a track record. Been wanting to learn about the oil industry for quite a number of years - cant wait to head down there next month.

Another question I have is about being an Owner/operator. If I get to enjoying the job, despite all the paperwork headaches... do any of you know if the profit is worth being an o/o vs company driver?

 

ATT works as well or better in most of TX then Verizon. I got signals in Mentone, Wink, Pecos,Pyote and lots of other towns out there when Verizon didn't get squat. From Orla on West Verizon was much better. Same down south. Never had much problem with either around Dilley, Pearsall, Three Rivers or anywhere else in Eagle Ford.

 

That is exactly the way to approach it. O/O's do good in the oil fields. There is plenty of opportunity for a guy to get his own truck make a good living with it. The downfall that I see is having your money tied up if/when the next bust cycle hits. As long as that catch up

 

I hear you Arky, I guess its all a gamble really. I don't know if you or anyone else on here is into this stuff but quite a few of my friends work in finance in NYC. Nobody thinks the Permian, the Eagle Ford, or the Bakken for that matter is ending within the next few years, and they have a lot of data to back them up. Here is a great example: http://www.laredopetro.com/media/18698/the_importance_of_permian_oil_production_nationally.pdf I know humanity never expects the good times to end, but I think we are good for at least another decade. I think the oil co's will drill at a steady rate in order to keep the price per barrel high and drill new wells as needed... at least I'm hoping everyone learned the lessons of the 70's and early 80's. We'll see if reality holds to the data everyone has on this. I guess its work hard for it while the work is there, eventually it'll dry up.

 

there won't be another bust until we run out of oil. the world is a very different place than it was during the last major bust in the 80s that devastated the permian basin. china is gulping down oil like a frat boy doing a keg stand. india is next in line and next we'll see poverty stricken regions of africa and south america join the party of industrialized materialistic cultures who value owning smart phones and flat screens and other trash over respecting the planet that gave them life. ANYWAY not to get off on a tangent... world demand for oil is a vertical line that production will never meet. oil will become more and more scarce and more valuable. prices are never going to dip to a level that shuts the machine down. the machine will operate at full blast til the machine itself has no oil to run it



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And all it will take to decimate the US oil industry is regulations from DC... just like they did to the coal industry over the past 5 years... The ONLY reason oil is booming right now, is that the drilling is happening on PRIVATE and STATE lands...The feds have not figured out a way to stop it YET.