my rant this month

[Justink]

Not the greatest job, but go get your class 3 or 1 drivers license.  Guy I work with pulled 400 hours last month.  I don't know about Calgary but down in Rocky about half  the jobs advertised are for truckers, starting wage anywhere from $22-26 an hour.

[Rubi03 jef]

it never hurts too look whats out there for work. always options. but if the guy that runs the show is your friend, then you should be pretty safe to tell him how you and the other emlpoyees feel. if you guys arent makeing money then tell them why. sometimes they get blinded by the fact that they still get a paycheque. maybe you and/or others have some ideas on how to help the company.

oh trust me i have sat down with him many times to try to figure out whats going on and he knows where all on the in danger list of starving

[Rubi03 jef]

Not the greatest job, but go get your class 3 or 1 drivers license.  Guy I work with pulled 400 hours last month.  I don't know about Calgary but down in Rocky about half  the jobs advertised are for truckers, starting wage anywhere from $22-26 an hour.

ive thought about that as welll

i just got to dish out the 1000 bucks for it

[The Machinist]

I think we are about to boom again.  Every machine shop in Calgary has more work than they can handle, every oil and gas company has every rig out, price of oil is suppost to go to record highs again.  It's an employee's market out there.

[w squared]

I don't htink that we're going to see the sort of boom that we did in '06 through '08...but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like silverfox said, that wasn't sustainable.

[WhiteOut]

I don't htink that we're going to see the sort of boom that we did in '06 through '08...but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like silverfox said, that wasn't sustainable.

Yeah, on the business side of things there is much much more activity, it just takes a little while to trickle down to actually putting equipment in the field. There was no way he 2006-2008 boom was remotely sustainable, the new level of activity that we will see will be much more realistic with oil $85-$95/bbl. Unconventional natural gas will also start to be a driving factor in the new reality I think.

[w squared]

Unconventional natural gas will also start to be a driving factor in the new reality I think.

We're already seeing HUGE activity with the Horn River basin and other shale gas plays. Lots of money getting spent there in a hurry. That said, it's common knowledge within the industry that 2011 conventional well licenses are WAY up.

[JackstandJohnny]

I don't htink that we're going to see the sort of boom that we did in '06 through '08...but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like silverfox said, that wasn't sustainable.

hope your wrong Todd; i could use a good 150% increase in the value of my house over the next 2 years. sustainable what?  isn't that normal growth?  you mean 40 yr mortgages with 0% down raise viable risk concerns? not with 150% growth!!!!

i wouldn't worry about 150$ oil. eventually economics will slap Bay/Wall street in the face and prices will level out.  even the oil industry (outside of Alberta, go figure) predict prices to stay current because the global recovery is ever-dependant on oil prices, like Pook will be reliant on a towstrap in PC  not to mention stockpiles continue to grow, and last time  i checked, continued production of natural gas doesn't increase price when demands level.  i'd worry about a bubble more than anything.......

what were we talking about?

OH Jeff, heard a commercial on X92.9 this morning that Trinidad Drilling (or Titan) are hiring everybody.  might be worth checking out.  even i'm considering.  screw office work

[w squared]

The value of your house is still inflated, Johnny. Unless it's priced over $450K or so, the market in Calgary never really softened all that much. Then again, according to the city, my place picked up $44K in value over the past 12 months. Whatever!

[Bnine]

We're already seeing HUGE activity with the Horn River basin and other shale gas plays. Lots of money getting spent there in a hurry. That said, it's common knowledge within the industry that 2011 conventional well licenses are WAY up.

Yeah, on the business side of things there is much much more activity, it just takes a little while to trickle down to actually putting equipment in the field. There was no way he 2006-2008 boom was remotely sustainable, the new level of activity that we will see will be much more realistic with oil $85-$95/bbl. Unconventional natural gas will also start to be a driving factor in the new reality I think.

Thats backwards. The activity starts in the field, then trickles down to us. Grand prairie is in full boom state.

You guy think 2006 was unsustainable, you are all wrong. The only reason we arent still there is because the artificial deflation of the world economy due to the yanks.

Because of other countries growth and demand for oil, the world say its all time record comsumtion last year(80 million barrels a day). That means no matter how screwed the yanks are, we are headed right back to where we were whether the yanks have their crap together or not.

At least, thats where things are headed.

We are already having a major personel shortage in the field. I am shutting down rigs because they dont have the men to supply me with relief. I am waiting upwards of 2 months to get frac crews because they are all booked up.

Right now, I am waiting 3 days just to get a hot oiler in slave lake.

The field is already booming. We just havnt seen it yet.


As for housing, calgary is still below ontario and vancouver, and Alberta has a better economy. Our realestate is not over inflated, it just feels that way because everything here was under valued for so long.

Since the crash our ogden house lost 55k last year, and picked up 30k this year. I would argue thats a reasonable estimate considering the year that is ahead of us.

[WhiteOut]

^Makes sense, explains why I'm pulling my hair out wondering why no one is hiring in the non-technical side. Don't graduate before breakup either

[AstraX]

One big thing to keep in mind though, and I know not everyone will agree, but money isn't everything (it's nice, but not everything). 

I have my journeyman welding ticket, which I got when I was 20, I got laid off from the company I was with 10 years ago and chose not to go back to it because I wasn't happy.  After being off for a bit I got a job at Future Shop working in the warehouse for $7.50/hr (after being paid $20/hr with a crap load of OT it was a big kick in the pants).  It ended up being a great path for me to take, though the money wasn't/isn't as good as I would like, I have enjoyed working for the company and with the people, I met my wife at work and now have a steady 40hr work week that is flexible and I can bank on.

There have been many times I have thought about going back to welding since I could make a LOT more money, but I just remind myself that I just wasn't happy doing that as a job.  Now that being said, if I get into wheeling I might take up welding again for fab projects for myself and others, but it will be for fun and a few extra bucks, not a full time gig.

If it comes down to catching up on payments etc. then maybe take one of these guys up on a rig job, go work as many hours as you can for a few months, get caught up and then figure out where you want to go from there.  But staying at a place that is stressing you out just isn't healthy and the sooner you cut ties the less stressed you will be about it.

That's just my $0.02.

[Rubi03 jef]

thanks for all the options / views

i will be doing alot of consideration and see where it brings me

[silverfox]

Thats backwards. The activity starts in the field, then trickles down to us. Grand prairie is in full boom state.

You guy think 2006 was unsustainable, you are all wrong. The only reason we arent still there is because the artificial deflation of the world economy due to the yanks.

Because of other countries growth and demand for oil, the world say its all time record comsumtion last year(80 million barrels a day). That means no matter how screwed the yanks are, we are headed right back to where we were whether the yanks have their crap together or not.

At least, thats where things are headed.

We are already having a major personel shortage in the field. I am shutting down rigs because they dont have the men to supply me with relief. I am waiting upwards of 2 months to get frac crews because they are all booked up.

Right now, I am waiting 3 days just to get a hot oiler in slave lake.

The field is already booming. We just havnt seen it yet.


As for housing, calgary is still below ontario and vancouver, and Alberta has a better economy. Our realestate is not over inflated, it just feels that way because everything here was under valued for so long.

Since the crash our ogden house lost 55k last year, and picked up 30k this year. I would argue thats a reasonable estimate considering the year that is ahead of us.

This is 100% consistent with what we are experiencing as well.  We had to move hell and earth to hire a swing shift to get out and relieve our guys.  Our rigs are working 24/7 and our only downtime is arising out of waiting for Frac Crews (no hands) or waiting for pumping rigs to come available (no hands) etc.  Last I heard the qualifications for some companies out there from a hand perspective is well A PULSE.  I think we have had 2 wage adjustments in the last 4 months and this is just so we don't lose our hands to others never mind the hiring issues.

On the real estate side.........I somewhat agree but some portions of the market are/were overflated (mostly the 500k+ stuff) there has been some leveling in the market but overall our cost of living is still lower than most of the major centers............it will go up more I would suspect.........in the near term there is Oil in them thar hills and everyone wants it, China alone could take everything that we could produce.

[jeepjones]

Instead of working on the rigs ever considered building them or other oilfield equipment? Apply at Stewart & Stevenson they pay well over $20hr, are based in Calgary, are booming and the shop is nice, warm and clean.