Time for a better update...
I am happy. It's been a long time, but I think I can see a bit of a light at the end of my life's tunnel. I think I have better direction now, and direction makes me happy. I know alot of people, sometimes myself included, who don't neccessariliy agree with the field I have chosen as a job. I will get into that after, but I think my job is going to turn into a career. The guy I work with/for is the first completely clean boss I have had so far since i started testing. I mean this guy doesn't even drink a drop. He used to be an alcoholic and a crack head but he turned his life around and saved himself from certain life failure and doom. he got into the business 2 years ago. He is of above average intelligence and possesses great people skills. He is a hard worker and takes pride in any job or task he performs. I don't want to sound overly arrogant or narcissistic, but i think i possess some or or most of those qualities when it comes to work. I know I get paid a silly amount of money (When I actually do work), so it's the least I can do to do my job well. Now I have been in the 'biz' for almost a year. He only really has 1 more year experience than I. He is Day Supervising, the next step up after Night Operator, which is a position I am currently being offered. If I do well, and learn fast I could be Day Operating within 6 months. This guys has managed his money properly and I will break down his invoice as follows (he contracts out to the company I work for rather than working directly.. Both parties involved end up making more money so it's a win-win situation):
Day Rate (Actual daily wage for a 12 hour shift) - $400/day
Truck (Instead of a company rental) - $150-300/day
Camper (Rather than a hotel room)- $85/day
Subsistence (food/Smokes etc... Allowance) $40/day
Computer (Charging for his own laptop rather than a company one) - $20/day
Cell Phone (Instead of a company issue bag-phone) - $20/day
This means that for every day he works in the field, he makes a total of $755-905... Think about that for a second... Now on top of this, to insure that the company keeps him, they have to pay him his day rate for 10 days out of a month whether he works or not. This is called a Guarantee.. that means even if there is no work, without lifting a finger he earns $4000 per month. One word....
WOW.
He plans on working for 5 years at this income and retire, or he will buy some P-Tanks and hire crews to run them for him. A P-Tank costs an oil company $4500 each day it's used. On average the owner of a P-Tank makes about $2000 per day it's used. He wants to get 4 of them. $8000 a day take-home, and with the connections this guy makes he will have each one working for at least 200 out of a 365 day year. 200 days x $2000 per day x 4 tanks = 1.6 million a year. 4 P-Tanks would cost a person 1.2 million to build. He has investors who are willing to give him the overhead needed to start up his company. All upkeep/repairs and what-not aside that is insane money.
Needless to say, I think if I play things smart and work on a long-term goal of maybe 12 years in this field, I could retire comfortably and wealthily at the ripe age of 40. I would be a millionaire. Now money is not something that usually drives my life, but the numbers are hard to ignore... I see Alberta in many ways as the land of fiscal opportunity for the young, unattached buck, and it seems silly for me to not make an attempt to utilize that to my advantage.
Anyways, back to the ethical side of the business... Now I am a wildlife lover. I love plants and animals and all things nature. I am not a hippy, nor a tree hugger, but I do have a healthy appreciation and respect for my fellow life-owning beings. Except spiders, those disgusting little abberations can all die as far as I'm concerned... errr anyways - The point is, the business is by nature, hard on the environment. It always will be until hydro/solar or whatever power is efficent and powerful enough to run the planet. As I wander out to the P-Tank now and then I look at the 15 foot flare that burns in the sky on location day and night, consuming all the collected and monitored gas that we test. I wonder how much damage that causes. I also realize that it is going to be burning whether I am there or not. I look at all the oil spilled and the chemicals that get onto the ground, disrupting the environment. I see the half-assed job that many workers do to "Preserve the environment" by "cleaning" up spills and such - which usually equates to mopping up what they can and throwing enough dirt on the rest so no one sees the spill and so they avoid catching shit. I do however feel glad that I am there, doing my best to A) Be diligent and precise in my job so that no spills or damage to the environment occur, and B) When unavoidable accidents do happen, to deal with them in a hastily and thourough manner so that I can physically see that nothing was damaged or hurt.
I suppose I am writing this because at a well a few weks back I was working on, we had a tank blow and put about 5 cubic meters of high grade condensate all over a huge cluster of praire dog tunnels. Condensate is the crude, unrefined version of what high-grade gasoline and fuels are made from. We did what we could to clean it up, but I know there was alot of fluid that found it's way into gopher holes. It was around the time of the year that baby gophers would be inside being fed by their parents. It made me very sad. Yes, I know they are only gophers - but they remind so much of little cute, chirping puppies, and it makes my heart heavy to think of needlessly killing them for the purposes of harvesting fuels and chemicals to further pollute the world by using our machines. I know Rusty would argue and say they make it dangerous for livestock and horses that graze, therefore they are a pest and should be eliminated. I still would like to think that the only right to kill I have on this earth is for food. Thankfully, due to the way society has evolved I never have to do the actual killing, but as far as I know - it is alot more humane now, than the caveman way of repeatedly bludgeoning or spearing something until it dies... slowly and painfully... Also at work on Friday I looked at the front page of the paper and saw the results of the oils spill that happened in that lake near edmonton. All the helpless animals - confused and slowly dying from the oil that they can't remove from their fragile bodies. Anyways, I don't know if this post is just me trying absolve myself of the lingering guilt i have in being an active part of the oil and gas industry or what, I am just glad that in my own small way I feel like I am doing my part to make things better...
(P.S - I prefer to work on natural gas wells rather than oil because 1) they are safer and 2) There is WAY less damage to the environment. More harm is done by household furnace emissions over time than the actual harvesting/testing of it. So far out of nearly 50 or so wells I have worked, only around 4 have had oil content.)
By the way, ignore my spelling... Normally it is immaculate, but I am too tired to care...
Day Rate (Actual daily wage for a 12 hour shift) - $400/day
Truck (Instead of a company rental) - $150-300/day
Camper (Rather than a hotel room)- $85/day
Subsistence (food/Smokes etc... Allowance) $40/day
Computer (Charging for his own laptop rather than a company one) - $20/day
Cell Phone (Instead of a company issue bag-phone) - $20/day
This means that for every day he works in the field, he makes a total of $755-905... Think about that for a second... Now on top of this, to insure that the company keeps him, they have to pay him his day rate for 10 days out of a month whether he works or not. This is called a Guarantee.. that means even if there is no work, without lifting a finger he earns $4000 per month. One word....
WOW.
He plans on working for 5 years at this income and retire, or he will buy some P-Tanks and hire crews to run them for him. A P-Tank costs an oil company $4500 each day it's used. On average the owner of a P-Tank makes about $2000 per day it's used. He wants to get 4 of them. $8000 a day take-home, and with the connections this guy makes he will have each one working for at least 200 out of a 365 day year. 200 days x $2000 per day x 4 tanks = 1.6 million a year. 4 P-Tanks would cost a person 1.2 million to build. He has investors who are willing to give him the overhead needed to start up his company. All upkeep/repairs and what-not aside that is insane money.
Needless to say, I think if I play things smart and work on a long-term goal of maybe 12 years in this field, I could retire comfortably and wealthily at the ripe age of 40. I would be a millionaire. Now money is not something that usually drives my life, but the numbers are hard to ignore... I see Alberta in many ways as the land of fiscal opportunity for the young, unattached buck, and it seems silly for me to not make an attempt to utilize that to my advantage.
Anyways, back to the ethical side of the business... Now I am a wildlife lover. I love plants and animals and all things nature. I am not a hippy, nor a tree hugger, but I do have a healthy appreciation and respect for my fellow life-owning beings. Except spiders, those disgusting little abberations can all die as far as I'm concerned... errr anyways - The point is, the business is by nature, hard on the environment. It always will be until hydro/solar or whatever power is efficent and powerful enough to run the planet. As I wander out to the P-Tank now and then I look at the 15 foot flare that burns in the sky on location day and night, consuming all the collected and monitored gas that we test. I wonder how much damage that causes. I also realize that it is going to be burning whether I am there or not. I look at all the oil spilled and the chemicals that get onto the ground, disrupting the environment. I see the half-assed job that many workers do to "Preserve the environment" by "cleaning" up spills and such - which usually equates to mopping up what they can and throwing enough dirt on the rest so no one sees the spill and so they avoid catching shit. I do however feel glad that I am there, doing my best to A) Be diligent and precise in my job so that no spills or damage to the environment occur, and B) When unavoidable accidents do happen, to deal with them in a hastily and thourough manner so that I can physically see that nothing was damaged or hurt.
I suppose I am writing this because at a well a few weks back I was working on, we had a tank blow and put about 5 cubic meters of high grade condensate all over a huge cluster of praire dog tunnels. Condensate is the crude, unrefined version of what high-grade gasoline and fuels are made from. We did what we could to clean it up, but I know there was alot of fluid that found it's way into gopher holes. It was around the time of the year that baby gophers would be inside being fed by their parents. It made me very sad. Yes, I know they are only gophers - but they remind so much of little cute, chirping puppies, and it makes my heart heavy to think of needlessly killing them for the purposes of harvesting fuels and chemicals to further pollute the world by using our machines. I know Rusty would argue and say they make it dangerous for livestock and horses that graze, therefore they are a pest and should be eliminated. I still would like to think that the only right to kill I have on this earth is for food. Thankfully, due to the way society has evolved I never have to do the actual killing, but as far as I know - it is alot more humane now, than the caveman way of repeatedly bludgeoning or spearing something until it dies... slowly and painfully... Also at work on Friday I looked at the front page of the paper and saw the results of the oils spill that happened in that lake near edmonton. All the helpless animals - confused and slowly dying from the oil that they can't remove from their fragile bodies. Anyways, I don't know if this post is just me trying absolve myself of the lingering guilt i have in being an active part of the oil and gas industry or what, I am just glad that in my own small way I feel like I am doing my part to make things better...
(P.S - I prefer to work on natural gas wells rather than oil because 1) they are safer and 2) There is WAY less damage to the environment. More harm is done by household furnace emissions over time than the actual harvesting/testing of it. So far out of nearly 50 or so wells I have worked, only around 4 have had oil content.)
By the way, ignore my spelling... Normally it is immaculate, but I am too tired to care...