Oilpatch Guys and Gals ???

[swabby]

THE SUMMER OF 06 WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ?, COMPANIES ARE HAVING JOB FAIRS ALL OVER NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA,ECT FOR ALBERTA JOBS !!!YOU THINK THOSE JOBS ARNT FOR CONTRACTORS WORKING FOR OIL COMPANIES IN ALBERTA ? THINK ABOUT IT !!! , BETTER BY 1 OF THOSE HYBRID MACHINES IF YOU DONT WANA PAY THE PIPPER ...THIS INDUSTRY HAS SUPPORTED ME AND MY FAMILY WERY WELL FOR OVER 17 YEARS AND I HAVE WATCHED PRICES ON EVERYTHING GO THREW THE ROOF LOOK A PICKUP THAT COSTED 40K.IN 2004 NOW COST 65K.IN 08. A HOUSE IN 2003 COST ME 140 K. NOW ASSESED AT 280K. AND HAVE NOT PUT A PENNY INTO UPGRADES :d.THIS IS CALLED INFLATION,SO WHY SHOULDNT GAS AND OIL GO UP TO? THE NAY SAYERS ARE SO NARROW MINDED ON THIS SUBJECT ITS GETTING SICK THE PICTURE IS BIG SO LOOK THE WHOLE THING OVER :d

 

[rigrat]

So what are you saying swabby? Are you saying the patch has not taken a downturn since 2006? WRONG. The reason there are job fairs and companies looking for help is that a lot of people have left or are leaving the oilpatch. The profits of the service companies and common worker have not even remotely followed suit with the oil company profits. If things dont change there will be a lot more people out of work and a lot of companies going down. If the oil companies can take advantage they will. If the government can take advantage they will and if we can take advantage, WE WILL!

 

[Snowdin]

THE SUMMER OF 06 WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ?, COMPANIES ARE HAVING JOB FAIRS ALL OVER NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA,ECT FOR ALBERTA JOBS !!!YOU THINK THOSE JOBS ARNT FOR CONTRACTORS WORKING FOR OIL COMPANIES IN ALBERTA ? THINK ABOUT IT !!! , BETTER BY 1 OF THOSE HYBRID MACHINES IF YOU DONT WANA PAY THE PIPPER ...THIS INDUSTRY HAS SUPPORTED ME AND MY FAMILY WERY WELL FOR OVER 17 YEARS AND I HAVE WATCHED PRICES ON EVERYTHING GO THREW THE ROOF LOOK A PICKUP THAT COSTED 40K.IN 2004 NOW COST 65K.IN 08. A HOUSE IN 2003 COST ME 140 K. NOW ASSESED AT 280K. AND HAVE NOT PUT A PENNY INTO UPGRADES :d.THIS IS CALLED INFLATION,SO WHY SHOULDNT GAS AND OIL GO UP TO? THE NAY SAYERS ARE SO NARROW MINDED ON THIS SUBJECT ITS GETTING SICK THE PICTURE IS BIG SO LOOK THE WHOLE THING OVER :d

Um well I've been working in the patch for over 30 years. The patch has been good to me and my family as well. My daughter is graduating in spring with a degree in Petroleum engineering. She will be the fourth generation oil patch worker in my family.

Yes indeed the oil companies decided 2 1/2 years ago things should slow down. See they can do that because they make record profits when the price of oil goes up. They can do that because they have huge cash flow and can afford to do it. The reason there are job fairs is because NOW they want to get busy and there are not enough people to run the equipment (Seen this happen a few times in my life).

Here is one of the things about this oil patch life style that really stinks in my opinion. People from all over Canada arrive in Alberta in a beat up old car that barely runs. They get a job in the patch, rent an apartment for a year and save enough money to buy a house. They buy a house, buy a decent vehicle, a few toys, they have some kids and then Whamo the oil patch goes flat. No work. They loose everything and go back to where ever. Couple years later the patch decides to get busy again and some of these folks say bugger that I'm not going back there and some say lets go try again. So they start over get right back where they were and Whamo the cash rich oil patch says "Our trucking costs and rig costs are to high so we are gong to shut down some projects". In the mean time they have raked in record profits while these two time losers are going home and never coming back to Alberta again.

Oh ya while I'm on this little rant, I might as well vent about these wonderful oil companies roots. A lot of them are foreign owned. They take those record profits from OUR non renewable resources back to their country of origin. The only way the good folks of Alberta are going to get a piece of the pie is through royalties. I wish Ed would stand up to them and fight for whats good for us. Don't worry, those oil companies have to much invested in Alberta to just pull out. I say if they don't like doing business in Alberta we the citizens should buy them out. It's our oil and we could use the billions in profits to fund our health care, education, infrastructure AND maybe a little break on Albertans taxes so they could get some doe in the bank for emergencies.

Sheesh. Rant over. Thanks for listening.

 

[DRD]

PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE THAT DRD AND ANYBODY ELSE THAT THINKS THAT WAY!!!!

Caps lock is on the left side of the keyboard...

Are you normally this emotional?

I guess I'm not as in love with oil companies as some are. I've been working in the patch since I was kid and the affection has worn off a bit.
The greed and the hypocrisy are mostly to blame.
Safety policies that reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator of intelligence, Safety as long as it's not to "expensive". Environmental policies that sound good but don't have any teeth. I've been in so many plants that are older and grandfathered with regard to emmisions. The companies won't upgrade to meet existing standards because it's to "expensive". At the same time they are making record profits year after year? I'm not talking about 50 Billion dollar upgrades either. I'm talking about six figure end units/scrubbers. I've worked all over the globe and some of the things I saw really made me shake my head. One thing that always stuck in my mind as a way to do thing different is this,A) blow down 22 km of sour gas through the flare stack and burn it off, or B) Bring a flatbed mounted compressor in and suck the pipeline down and hardly flare anything, common practice in Europe. Companies won't do it due to cost.
I'm all for oil companies making profit, hell I like to make money. They just need to put everything in balance.

 

[swabby]

i here what your sayin drd and your are rite about these companies the mighty $ comands everything even the safety us and our fellow workers, there is no love here for any company here , i do like the fairly steady money that the boom has provided though. i would just like you and many others like to see it all level out and get on a level playing field , problem is all these oil companies have taken things to the max.(pushed our pocket books to the limit)they are like a kid and always goona push to find out how far they can go!!
in my opinion.. whats next mad max beyond the thunderdome??? lol...:d

 

[swabby]

i forgot drd im not emotional or any of that im gettin tired of herin about it all this stuff its all just getting out of our control we are all realy under a dictatorship from our gov. and oil , but thats life it could be worse check out iraq

 

[DRD]

Well I guess we should all sell our sleds, quads, trucks,cars,boats basically anything that uses oil or gas so that we no longer need their services and then once they can not sell a product they will go under. SUCK it up it is all about supply and demand you want the toys you have to pay for it.

AS for them not letting you work past 12 - 14 hours in a day. It is not because they are cheep it is more like because there are LABOUR LAWS which are being enforced now, unlike they were back in the dinosaur age which some still think they live in

I never said they were cheap and not wanting to pay...

It's when companies override their own policies and labour codes in the name of production. In one breath they will tell you all about the maximum allowable hours you can work for safety reasons, the next they want you to work 20 hrs to get a unit back on to gain a few hours production. I mean writing a new permit because the original expired after 12 so you can keep going another 12 is hypocritical.
I'm not painting all companies with the same brush either. A few like Shell are very good IMO.