That’s some real hustle on display, backed up by long experience, I’ll bet. There are at least four men visible on that crew, and they all know what they’re about at all times. I believe that the unofficial word for their jobs is roughneck, but everyone on a rig like that is not all doing the same job. There are derrick hands, and drillers, and floorhands, and motormen, and roustabout jobs on rigs like these. I don’t think any of these guys is technically a roughneck. I think these guys would be called floor hands. Maybe one of them is a derrick hand. One might be a motorman.
Cruising around the intertunnel, I find that the salaries these guys make don’t vary a lot with their different job descriptions.
You can work offshore if you want to bump up your salary some.
The fellows in the video might lose a finger if they’re a little slow getting out of the bight of the chain, but at least they’re not likely to drown in the bargain. It’s a nice, sunny day on the rig in the video, but I imagine their game doesn’t get called on account of rain, or snow. They’re all smiles, and working super-efficiently, but I’ll bet they grimace and tough it out on plenty of bad weather days, too.
There is only one way to earn the respect of men like this. Pull your weight. That’s it. Don’t show up late, or drunk, or high, or fiddle with a phone, or daydream. Know your role, and stick to it. Don’t clown around, except maybe at lunch. Hustle, especially when it really matters. Prepare for the next thing as soon as the last thing is finished.
No one’s getting rich here, except whoever owns the hole in the ground. It would be vanishingly easy to get hurt, or even killed, if you took your eye off the ball, or the guy next to you did. They are useful people, and worthy of our admiration.
The world pays guys who torture a little Python code into a phone app $350k a year, and these guys 1/7 of that, because the world didn’t ask me beforehand.
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You can get a close-up view of the (good weather) working and living conditions of the offshore guys at Galveston’s Ocean Start Offshore Drilling Rig Museum (https://www.energyeducation.org/museum), which is–of course–on an old drilling rig just a few yards offshore. Not a bad setup, but they don’t give you a demo of working at night or during a storm. They also don’t give personnel transfer basket rides, so you can only imagine you and your duffle bag swinging under a chopper as it ferries you from a boat to your oil rig.
If I were a half-century younger, I wouldn’t sneeze at $97k working somewhere where there’s no place to spend your money during a tour.
Hi Mike- Thanks for reading and commenting.
That’s a terrific link. It’s an interesting concept for a museum. I’d find it way more interesting than most.
There is only one way to earn the respect of men like this. Pull your weight.
Yup. It is dirty, dangerous work, so slackers don’t last. Slackers can mess it up for everyone.
Because one worker’s bad move can mess it up for everyone, there is no such thing as an unimportant job on a rig. That leads to more camaraderie on a rig than on most other job sites. Treat your fellow worker well, because his performing his job correctly may well save your life.
After a month on a rig in the Guatemalan jungle, I was ready for my month off. But after a month off, I was glad to see all the rig hands again.
It’s dangerous. Roughnecks can lose fingers, and many do. We had hydrogen sulfide training in Guatemala. The year after I left Guatemala, hydrogen sulfide exposure on one rig killed some rig hands. A Canadian who worked months opposite to me in Guatemala got transferred back to Canada. He got assigned to the Ocean Ranger, and was on his week off when the Ocean Ranger went down. But for the Grace of God…
I got sent for temporary duty in the Rio Grande valley. I needed to keep the drilling fluid within narrow parameters. Too high, and the formation broke down. Too low, and gas went from the formation into the wellbore. Either potentially losing the well. I got 6 hours of sleep in four days, until I broke down and called the office for some relief. A month after I left, the well “kicked,” gas coming uncontrolled into the wellbore- when you see liquid/gas coming off the top of the rig- not a good thing to see-but the well wasn’t lost.
One time when a helicopter was taking me out to a rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the pilot let me take the lever for a while, which gave me several minutes experience of piloting a helicopter. It was sunny with no wind, so the pilot wasn’t risking a lot.
I worked mostly in Latin America. I later said that my time in Latin America turned me from a progressive of the left ( guerrilla priest Camillo Torres was a friend of lifelong friends) into an evil right winger.
I am reminded of the old joke that the oil field is full of druggies. The dope comes in five gallon cans. (The grease the roughnecks were putting on the bottom of the pipe stems is called “pipe dope.) There’s a pusher on every rig- the rig foreman is called a tool pusher. The shift foreman is called a tour (pronounced “tower”) pusher.
Interesting, thanks Gringo
Hello Gringo- Thanks for reading and commenting.
In the good old days of the intertunnel, if you read something on a website, it might be slightly interesting or informative, but when you read the comments, there would always be at least one person who knew more about the topic, and was willing to share the benefit of their experience. You know, like you just did.
Every high school kid in America ought to see videos like this – and of other jobs – and get a session on where their energy (and plastic, and medicine, and etc, etc, etc.) comes from and what it takes to get it – few have any idea whatsoever.
Hi Harry- Thanks for reading and commenting.
I’m afraid they do already see videos like this in high school. Then the teacher extols the virtues of vandalizing the oil rig late at night, throwing soup on the Mona Lisa, and gluing your hand to a motorway.
A note from history. Before the US entered WW2, the British were desperate for oil. A team of American experts was assembled and sent with high priority on the Queen Mary to England. Roughnecks out of Texas and Oklahoma to drill for oil in Sherwood Forest.
Hi Don- Thanks for reading and commenting and knowing things.
Thanks, sippicancottage. Their story is almost surreal. Drilling for oil in Sherwood Forest, the home of Robin Hood. Their work permits signed by the High Sheriff of Nottingham. They were housed in an Anglican monastery along with the monks (reportedly, the “Rogues and Robes” got along together well). And every morning, the Abbott would bless them before they set off to work.