[NA]Experiences of an oil boom[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Display name:
Dave Taylor
Right now, a nearby city is in one of their 'up' phases, with a year of wildcatting behind us and no sign of letting up.
The biggest thing an outsider like me notices is there are no hotel rooms or rent cars available, and we have confirmed stories of $250/nite @ Motel6. I just checked Expedia: no rooms for many miles. We know of a house which was sold within hours of going on the market, at formerly top of the market price. Many have travelled to get in on the wages available, realizing it won't last. A luxury car dealer is doing 12x their usual volume. It's like the stock market though, they all know what's going to happen - "What goes up........"
Anyone been through this?
 
Sure. I bought technology stocks in 1999 & 2000. There's a lot of money to be made if you can avoid getting caught up in the insanity.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Right now, a nearby city is in one of their 'up' phases, with a year of wildcatting behind us and no sign of letting up.
The biggest thing an outsider like me notices is there are no hotel rooms or rent cars available, and we have confirmed stories of $250/nite @ Motel6. I just checked Expedia: no rooms for many miles. We know of a house which was sold within hours of going on the market, at formerly top of the market price. Many have travelled to get in on the wages available, realizing it won't last. A luxury car dealer is doing 12x their usual volume. It's like the stock market though, they all know what's going to happen - "What goes up........"
Anyone been through this?
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Naw, never..:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

It seems to be the nature of any minerals based industry and those which service it. Veteran of the 70's through today...(and more busts than booms under my belt)
 
Someone pointed out to me that the Denver JetCenter East terminal building was full of oil field roughnecks a few days ago being shuttled somewhere by Denver Air Connection / Key Lime in Metroliners.

He said it was pretty fun to watch considering the usual KAPA charter clientele.
 
Anyone who's ever worked the oil field knows this cycle all too well. You can always tell the boom years, they're the ones where everybody builds additions on their house and buy a new truck and tractor.
 
One of the service companies is running crews out of Denver week-on/week-off in nodak. Can't say that I envy them one bit...
 
This airplane makes weekly trips between Oklahoma and Wyoming carrying workers. We had to check it out.

2012-03-01%2520at%252011-05-53.jpg
 
Everskyward said:
:rofl:
Little towns which become boom towns take quite a while to catch up with their hotel and other infrastructure, meanwhile...
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The problem there lies in that the boom cycle of development only lasts about 5 years and once the pumps are set, most of the workers go elsewhere. This is about the same time the infrastructure catches up so you get one new hotel and 3 new old folks homes out of it.:rolleyes:
 
Henning said:
The problem there lies in that the boom cycle of development only lasts about 5 years and once the pumps are set, most of the workers go elsewhere. This is about the same time the infrastructure catches up so you get one new hotel and 3 new old folks homes out of it.:rolleyes:
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My first trip to the town where I took the picture of the airplane above was in about 2002. Things were just starting up at that time, I believe. That was 10 years ago.
 
Proof positive that people would still rather commute to North Dakota than live there? ;)
 
Everskyward said:
This airplane makes weekly trips between Oklahoma and Wyoming carrying workers. We had to check it out.
Click to expand...

I've worked with their crews while setting in a nice warm office in denver. It's sorta funny to listen to Oklahoma boys in a Wyoming winter...

(gotta bluetooth keyboard for the Ipad now - really nice - hope Nate doesn't get one or we'll have 100,000 word posts. :D )
 
Clark1961 said:
I've worked with their crews while setting in a nice warm office in denver. It's sorta funny to listen to Oklahoma boys in a Wyoming winter...

(gotta bluetooth keyboard for the Ipad now - really nice - hope Nate doesn't get one or we'll have 100,000 word posts. :D )
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Dude! I already have one.

Should I hook it up? :) :) :)

With LTE on the iPad 3 and the company VPN client working, I can now work anywhere without a laptop as long as I have my RSA fob with me to log in. It's kinda nifty.
 
In Minot, North Dakota electricians are making $120 an hour. Contractors as far south as Lincoln are being recruited to fill the jobs.

1. Maybe a career being an electrician or plumber is not such a bad way to make a living and not have student loans to pay off? :confused:

2. Maybe is we stopped paying and feeding people who do nothing they would get off their butts and fill these jobs? :confused:
 
Geico266 said:
In Minot, North Dakota electricians are making $120 an hour. Contractors as far south as Lincoln are being recruited to fill the jobs.

1. Maybe a career being an electrician or plumber is not such a bad way to make a living and not have student loans to pay off? :confused:

2. Maybe is we stopped paying and feeding people who do nothing they would get off their butts and fill these jobs? :confused:
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There's a lack of applicants?
 
Electricians and Plumbers have been doing pretty well everywhere for a while now. I've never met one without work who couldn't immediately find a job if they moved. Even in the disastrous job market created by the so-called "educated" bankers, insurance hacks, and mountains of lawyers.

They probably appreciate society acting like their jobs aren't as important as getting the latest fad MBA specialty or a degree in Multicultural Studies with a Minor in Underwater Basketweaving. Means less people fighting for their jobs.

A Master electrician usually has a pretty decent gig. They did usually have to work their way up in their Union and pay their dues (literally and figuratively) but that's not so bad.

Good plumbers don't do as well as the Electricians but Banker's toilets still clog up and overflow into the pretty Travertine bought with other people's inability to do multiplication and realize how far they got bent over.

Everyone says we have a "Military-Industrial Complex". I'd say the "Politico-Banking Complex" outstripped the former for overall power and evilness at least two decades ago, if not three.

I see that in today's news, Hawker-Beechcraft is $2 BILLION in debt. Not much power left there. Count the zeros in a billion sometime. Just write the number down and look at it on paper. Think about how much work it supposedly represents in terms of a Master Electrician's salary if you like.

Electricians and Plumbers? They love cash. Bypasses their Union, bypasses their bosses, saves them at least 20% overhead. Which they'll happily pass a significant portion of, right on to you.

Probably bypasses their taxes too, but what they report to Uncle isn't my problem...
 
Geico266 said:
In Minot, North Dakota electricians are making $120 an hour. Contractors as far south as Lincoln are being recruited to fill the jobs.

1. Maybe a career being an electrician or plumber is not such a bad way to make a living and not have student loans to pay off? :confused:

2. Maybe is we stopped paying and feeding people who do nothing they would get off their butts and fill these jobs? :confused:
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Yes - BUT - there is a reason.

In that part of the US there is no housing, no transportation, and no infrastructure. My company is housing personnel in 500 square foot rooms with bunk beds (two per room) at a rate of $1000 per week, 4 rooms share a single bathroom, nearest grocery store is 60 miles and there are no restuarants at all. We literally cannot hire workers to dig septic tanks and water wells to put in mobile homes, they are simply not available. In some of the fields the ground is so bad you put your truck in 4WD and don't take it out for months at a time. The mosquitoes all file IFR and use "Heavy" in their callsign. When a tanker truck of fuel shows up at the local gas station (and it's not a quickstop - it's a GAS STATION) they are sold out in about 4 hours. It's not a pleasant place to work and nobody is getting rich doing it - the cost of living is borderline psychotic and the conditions are horrible.
 
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denverpilot said:
Everyone says we have a "Military-Industrial Complex". I'd say the "Politico-Banking Complex" outstripped the former for overall power and evilness at least two decades ago, if not three.
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LOL, they are not unrelated. Look at the members of the boards of the top companies and see how many names repeat.
 
denverpilot said:
Proof positive that people would still rather commute to North Dakota than live there? ;)
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'Living there' is easier said than done. No apartments, no motel rooms available. Many of the workers live in 'man camps', some have travel trailers and motor homes set up on farms. That sounds all romantic until temps drop to -30F.

On the upside, plenty of guys with money falling out of their pockets and an interest in aviation. A good number of 182s and Cherokee Sixes have been sold into the oil-patch in the last 2-3 years.
 
Henning said:
There's a lack of applicants?
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A lack of qualified applicants.

To drive a tanker you need a CDL with tanker, air-brake and hazmat endorsement. To drive a sand or gravel truck you still need CDL+air-brake. The school districts are unable to keep their bus-drivers as they get hired away right from the bus with bundles of cash.

To do electrical and welding you need the right paperwork etc.

There is money to be made for a guy with a flatbed, a backhoe, insurance and the ability to live in his truck-cab for 2 weeks at a time.
 
I grew up in the patch, started pulling shifts on work-over rigs at 16. Some amazing stuff goes on in those places, like during the bust in the mid -80's. A new hotel was built in the south part of Elk City, and was completed to the point that the beds were sheeted and the salt shakers were on the tables. When the oil prices cratered, the owners nailed plywood on the front and never opened the doors. It sat for three years before they opened it.

Many people don't know that the major growth of cable television occurred because because Bill Daniels was working in the oil field in Casper, WY and couldn't see the Friday night fights on TV. He tired of driving to Denver and driving home drunk every week, and made a jillion dollars building cable systems.
 
Yup. Our Governor's Mansion is his old place.

His real brilliance was in figuring out how to get municipalities to let him drop cable to every house without paying big money to do it. Sometimes even getting the taxpayers of a municipality to pay for the entire roll-out.

He managed to bust the Broadcast monopolies and the Telecom "last-mile" copper monopoly in one single move: A drop of 75 ohm coax to every residence.

Ever since, it's "just" been how to cram more data down that one fat RF pipe.

Concurrently, Phillip Anschutz bought up railroads for their right-of-ways and buried fiber for the long-haul bit-banging stuff.

People complain today about Apple and other tech companies and their ethics, but the sweetheart deals those two guys managed to pull off were absolutely incredible.

Telco has convinced a few municipalities to play the same game with fiber to the curb, but never in the density or sheer coverage that cable got.

Amazing stuff really.
 
We joint-ventured a number of cable deals with Bill & John. Fortunately, I took a piece of all of them.


denverpilot said:
Yup. Our Governor's Mansion is his old place.

His real brilliance was in figuring out how to get municipalities to let him drop cable to every house without paying big money to do it. Sometimes even getting the taxpayers of a municipality to pay for the entire roll-out.

He managed to bust the Broadcast monopolies and the Telecom "last-mile" copper monopoly in one single move: A drop of 75 ohm coax to every residence.

Ever since, it's "just" been how to cram more data down that one fat RF pipe.

Concurrently, Phillip Anschutz bought up railroads for their right-of-ways and buried fiber for the long-haul bit-banging stuff.

People complain today about Apple and other tech companies and their ethics, but the sweetheart deals those two guys managed to pull off were absolutely incredible.

Telco has convinced a few municipalities to play the same game with fiber to the curb, but never in the density or sheer coverage that cable got.

Amazing stuff really.
Click to expand...
 
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