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Up turn??
Is the worst over? Will drilling pick up soon? Hard to say. I've been in the drilling industry for 37 years now, I've seen the ups and downs several times and survived the crash in the early eighties. As I remember we kept hearing that it would 'pick up in the next quarter' or 'next year' in fact it took almost 10 years for any real sustained gains! Then what happened? Seems like things started to steam-roll, came to a screeching halt for a few months then went ballistic!! We didn't see the number of rigs working that we had in the late seventies and early eighties, (almost 5000 rigs then) but we had the same problems - not enough experienced hands to man crews,but then all the sectors had the same problems, casing crews, frac crews, cement crews and so on.
In the last crash saw good people, good hands, vow to never return to the patch and as far as I know - they didn't. Not because they didn't want to but because they had families to support, kids to feed and bills to pay. I was lucky, I worked for a company that kept us going, people that quit weren't replaced but if you stuck it out they kept us going. It was tough. Long hours, lots and lots of miles to drive. My average drive was about 600 miles from home to the location. But I survived as did a lot of folks.
When things got really bad I wound up overseas, in places I would rather forget about but wouldn't change the experience for all the tea in China (been there). What I'm trying to say is 'You do what you have to do' If you really want to change things--- get involved, write your congress man, now days it's really easy, most of us are on line - send them an email. Send one to the Pretender - in -Chief,href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact"I know I do All the time. Make your voice heard, if you really want to change things you GOT TO TAKE A STAND!!
If you think the government is here to help us think again, listen and pay attention, off shore areas are being pulled from leasing agreements, whole areas of the country are being posted as off limits to drilling, even though we know the potential for oil and gas is there, we are not allowed by the government to drill there. Why? If you wonder about that as much asI do, ask your representatives for an answer. Then let me know if you like the answer you get. If enough of us 'roughnecks' start writting then I think we can make a change. If we make our voices heard in Washington DC we can counter act the "Progressive Liberals" and get back to work doing what we do better than anyone in the world, Drill, Baby, Drill !!!
In the last crash saw good people, good hands, vow to never return to the patch and as far as I know - they didn't. Not because they didn't want to but because they had families to support, kids to feed and bills to pay. I was lucky, I worked for a company that kept us going, people that quit weren't replaced but if you stuck it out they kept us going. It was tough. Long hours, lots and lots of miles to drive. My average drive was about 600 miles from home to the location. But I survived as did a lot of folks.
When things got really bad I wound up overseas, in places I would rather forget about but wouldn't change the experience for all the tea in China (been there). What I'm trying to say is 'You do what you have to do' If you really want to change things--- get involved, write your congress man, now days it's really easy, most of us are on line - send them an email. Send one to the Pretender - in -Chief,href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact"I know I do All the time. Make your voice heard, if you really want to change things you GOT TO TAKE A STAND!!
If you think the government is here to help us think again, listen and pay attention, off shore areas are being pulled from leasing agreements, whole areas of the country are being posted as off limits to drilling, even though we know the potential for oil and gas is there, we are not allowed by the government to drill there. Why? If you wonder about that as much asI do, ask your representatives for an answer. Then let me know if you like the answer you get. If enough of us 'roughnecks' start writting then I think we can make a change. If we make our voices heard in Washington DC we can counter act the "Progressive Liberals" and get back to work doing what we do better than anyone in the world, Drill, Baby, Drill !!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by T L Strickland on -
You are right chuck, I will bet that we see 600 rigs destroyed in the next year.
I dry leased six rigs from somebody in mississippi for a client in texas 4 years ago, he said the day you stack them, you can have them, he lived by his word, he made an ass load of money until 120days ago, cut the derricks and subs up, I sold the drawworks and pumps and pits last week to somebody out of bolivia who has rigs in the us for their own. Cheaper than hauling them home!
All the new Iron we built at Nabors, and the new Iron that H P grey wolf, pioneer etc. Thats the iron they have to run, so they will be retiring assets. I look for another round of buyouts by nabors and uti, then hire welders to cut them up.
That way they can tell investors they have a stable growing utilization rate, and keep the day rate from falling through the bowels of hell.
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