Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Who currently works in the Petroleum Industry?

My brother and I own a trucking company in North Dakota. We haul water and crude oil in the oil fields, started in 1980 with 3 trucks and are currently running over 200, we have one of the biggest booms in the nation right now with 140 drilling rigs in North Dakota! Anybody looking for a job. LOL.

avio;
I started trucking in West Texas hauling Crude and Salt Water after I quite working on the drilling rigs. I quit the rigs after the price fell on crude in '81, and they were stacking them out faster than you could find a job.
Then ran a "Kill" truck for a while, for the same outfit.
My truck had a "triplex" on it, most used "duplexes". I could take a lot of work away from the competion because of it.
Moved back to Indiana to haul "Light Products" in '84.
That Texas outfit had every kind of truck you could imagine, and the different transmissions to go with them. I learned a lot that first year.
Hardest one I had to learn had a 5 x 4 x 2. 40 gears in that thing..... Ought to be a law against that many gears....
Hope your drivers don't have the rattle snake problems we had.
They would be in the shade of the cool tanks during the summer.
We would pull up to a lease and there might be 2 or 3 under the loading valves, plus the vibration of the truck while loading would drawn them.
Then there were the times I would be 50 miles out in the desert in the middle of nowhere during the night, and all of a sudden see Red and Green lights behind me..... Border Patrol... that's a whole other story.
That job never got boring, always something new happening. It's probably the same for your drivers.
Chuck

My brother and I own/run a third generation tank manufacturer/fab shop/petroleum equipment distribution/service company.

Yes you can still buy cathodically protected steel tanks, it's not all fiberglass out there.

Chuck. Sounds like some things never change, we run about every truck manufacturer that you can imagine, that is if they are heavy duty to work in the hills and the crappy roads! When we first started out we flow tested wells and had to check well head pressures every hour, in the cool nites of the summer the rattle snakes loved to curl up with a warm well head. It was always very interesting walking up to one of those at 2 o'clock in the morning, in the dark, and be greeted by a rattle snake!! Of course in the winter when it is -30 below, with a wind chill of -50 below, don't see many snakes. LOL.

Tokeim.
Do you guys build frac tanks or up-rights? They are in hot demand up here right now! As are fabricators!

I've been with Holiday Stationstores for (18) years - another (22) and I can retire! Don't know if we can hold off the electric cars that long, LOL!

Started out an Assistant Manager & am now a Food Safety Technician (we're almost as much of a quick-service restaurant these days, as we are a gas station!)

Too old to hold a regular job, but back in the 1970s I owned two service stations (Shell & Phillips) and managed a third (Sunoco).

Jack Sim

My Father started a Sunoco station back in the 60"s in NY and I went on to take it over and opened two others until 2000 when I sold out to a large oil company in PA. Then worked for two other Oil Distributors for 6 yrs.

Jack;
Passing on your knowledge to us with your Books, is a deed that will live on forever. Long after our tasks are forgotten.
So in essence, you still play a vital roll in the Petroleum Industry, preserving a part of its history.
Chuck

I'm typing this while at work on Shell Ram/Powell Tension Leg Platform (TLP) in the Gulf of Mexico. I am a production operator and have been in the Gulf for thirteen years, but have been on Oldgas longer than that, with various names.