Engineer?
Probably consultant engineer. I imagine a company engineer has a fixed salary.
Being a CO for the state of California gets you pretty close to this list.
Cased hole engineer. I perforate horizontal wells. I work with a salary +commission. So it can vary quite a bit. When we are busy I do about 20k a month in bonus. It all sounds great until you figure out taxes. My bonus is considered a Luxury, which gets hit at a flat 45% tax rate. All said and done, I get about 50% of my gross monthly.
Most consultants on frac jobs make a flat 25k a month, but that makes you have your own business. Or 800-1500 per day. Depends on where you are at.
According to halliburton data, field, cased hole engineer makes 63k a year? Id love to work where you are lol. Then again, if you’re your own firm, and have your own customers, everything is gravy. Although when times get rough, the consultants are usually the first to go.
My uncle does that, of course he raises horses as a hobby, so he’s pretty much broke all the time.
If you want an almost guaranteed six figure job, move to Williston, North Dakota and get a job with an oil company. Yeah, you’ll be working 80+ hour weeks in temperatures that dip below zero regularly in the winter. You’ll probably living in a camp with a bunch of other guys or paying New York City prices for rent if you have a family. But, if you can tough it out for awhile, you could leave with a shit ton of money. If you live in one of the camps, after taxes and a couple fees, you’ll be taking home pretty much everything you make. I’m thinking for anyone who has been in the military and been deployed this wouldn’t be so bad, especially if you’re single.
I guess you missed the huge downturn the entire oil industry faced this summer? 185 rigs down to 76 rigs in less than a year drilling in the Bakken fields. Low oil prices are gutting all of the marginal operations, including those in Alaska.
This won’t last forever. The Saudis and Russians cannot keep this up for years.
Besides, the electric or solar powered car is also not coming.
The oil patch WILL come back…it always does.
Williston is one of those places that work on rotations. Most do 21 on a with 9 off. The major downside to my profession is work hours as you said. 70-120 hours per week is the norm. It works out with 12 hr shifts with 2.5 hours of drive time where I live. They have what are called man camps. Kind of like a dorm, cafeteria, weight room, movies room etc all rolled into one complex. Some are nicer than others. It’s not my cup of tea to work up there tho. Way too cold.
Silver, what Halliburton is stating is salary only. And its actually quite low. Depending on what market you are in it can be anywhere from 6-9k a month. This sounds really stupid, but we engineers do not count our salary when we look at what we make. When it is discussed, it’s the bonus only. So if I tell you I made 15k, it’s actually 15(bonus)+8(salary)=23k for the month. I was working for one of the bigger company’s as an employee. I am on vacation atm, I quit March 12. Been sailing in the Caribbean etc since I quit.
In the DFW area they only frac 1 maybe 2 stages a day so you make 3-5k a month in bonus. That’s not a great deal of money, but still ok. I work in Ok, in the mississippi here, so we have shorter frac times. This lets us do about 4-6 stages per shift. The record at my old shop was held by Caleb. He pumped 16 guns down and was rigged down in 24 hrs. That’s very fast. All done by one crew.
The oilfield is in a slump atm, but not too bad. The prices being down is what hurts the most. Our stage price is half of what it was a year ago. So company’s are working from cash reserves until things pick up. And while the market consolidates a bit. Allocations(drilling budget) for big company’s like Chesapeake and EOG, etc will be made in the next 2 months. This is what will give the outlook for the next year. If they are low, we will remain in a slow period for another year.
Boringguy45, yes you can make a lot of money, but the convenience store and bs can eat it up very fast. The younger guys have a hard time managing their money…well actually many do. It’s not how much you make, but how much you do NOT spend.
AKdoug do not believe everything you hear in the news, it’s 1% truth and the rest is propaganda. Yes its slow and prices are down, but some companys are still doing ok. It’s more about taking market share for when the prices go back up. Weakening other company’s position.
And to give you an example, I was sailing with a doctor that made around 300k Teaching academics in NYC. His statement was"I need to make more money". I told him he needed to change his view. Spend less and you will achieve your goal. He lives in a 1 bedroom apt, is single, and he has a doorman and a grocery store in his building for 4k a month. I live on a 1/3 of that monthly, only because I am single also. He did say that he may cut his cable TV off tho…lol???
To be honest, I can live off my salary alone. This lets me put into savings all my bonus if I decide to. I have been thru highs and lows. I hope I am a bit wiser than I once was. Living below your means takes dedication for the long haul. It’s guns that is killing my budget always.
Wilson1911, what kind of degree do you have? Civil? Petro? Mech? Chem?
I may ride a little fast and someday it may catch up and bite me in the ass but maybe not if I give it just a little more gas.
I know a high school spanish teacher making just under 110K. She is 34, been doing it for 12 years.
They can absolutely keep it up as long as they need to- which will be until the last highly-leveraged US competitor goes bankrupt because they can’t pay their notes.
[QUOTE=alvincullumyork;2185716]Wilson1911, what kind of degree do you have? Civil? Petro? Mech? Chem?
I do not have a degree, although most in my profession do now days. I have OJT. Started in 1994. I was an openhole enj before crossing over to casedhole. Wanted more money. I have been to school tho. The young ones have no exp, but lots of book power. EXP requires you to know what to do when you set down or get hung up in the well. Not getting pumped off is key. Pumping down guns is an art. A good Eng will not have any failures and be able to adapt to well conditions instantly. I work with explosives and electronic tools.