Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is it booming like 2011? No. However there are again more jobs than people. The current price of oil is enough for companies to turn a profit. When the Saudi's tried to bury shale oil they failed. Companies cut costs and learned how to incorporate more savings which led to the price not needing to be even close to $100 for them to make money. Saudi tried to take us out, and they failed.
I think if you're looking for some money and a job this isn't a bad prospect. You're not going to come up here and make $180k like you used to, but you can still reach a higher than average income here - typically in the $100k range if you're just starting.
However I would no longer recommend oil as a long term career plan. The world is moving away from fossil fuels. It's a way to make money now.
I absolutely would not say they failed, how many people were laid off in oil and gas in general that never went to work again in oil and gas? The mega corps never loose unless their assets are literally bombed into dust, like with literal bombs because then insurance does not cover an act of war so they take a total loss on billions worth of equipment and assets. War (if the elite in question is on the loosing side) is the only way they loose. Generally the little guy does not loose in a war unless they live close to the assets the other side wants to bomb or get suckered into showing up for a draft to fight for the elites.
I absolutely would not say they failed, how many people were laid off in oil and gas in general that never went to work again in oil and gas? The mega corps never loose unless their assets are literally bombed into dust, like with literal bombs because then insurance does not cover an act of war so they take a total loss on billions worth of equipment and assets. War (if the elite in question is on the loosing side) is the only way they loose. Generally the little guy does not loose in a war unless they live close to the assets the other side wants to bomb or get suckered into showing up for a draft to fight for the elites.
Anyone who was actually vested in working in oil and gas was able to continue through the downturn. There were a lot of people working in the industry to make a quick buck. When it bottomed out they just went back home and did something else. However, people who made this their career are still working and were still able to work through the downturn.
What you're pointing out is people who never intended to make this a career in the first place. A LOT of people treated the industry as a short term answer to financial issues. Work slowed but never stopped and Saudi Arabia has started to diversify their portfolio as they realize that they cannot rely on oil and gas revenues to fund their government.
So yes, they failed. They wanted to take out the shale plays in the US but instead they're now having to look at new ways to fund their own government.
Anyone who was actually vested in working in oil and gas was able to continue through the downturn. There were a lot of people working in the industry to make a quick buck. When it bottomed out they just went back home and did something else. However, people who made this their career are still working and were still able to work through the downturn.
What you're pointing out is people who never intended to make this a career in the first place. A LOT of people treated the industry as a short term answer to financial issues. Work slowed but never stopped and Saudi Arabia has started to diversify their portfolio as they realize that they cannot rely on oil and gas revenues to fund their government.
So yes, they failed. They wanted to take out the shale plays in the US but instead they're now having to look at new ways to fund their own government.
I dont agree, I worked oil and gas as a process engineer for 13 years and was laid off. However, I was not a share holder or owner. Duration of time in industry or whether or not someone "made it their career" had nothing to do with it. Lots of people got the ax that were not short term seasonal hires.
So I would say the saudi's won, they put alot of people out of work and spiked unemployment rates in certain states, Alaska is still in big trouble, oil prices are fairly high and there is no hiring or drilling going on. Now that companies have learned "to do more with less" a lot of jobs are not being refilled even though oil is almost $70 barrel. I would guess its similar in north dakota.
Plus after big reorganizations and mass lay offs people loose their positions of leverage and are forced to begin reapplying from the street again with strangers (because of how much turmoil there was), that is typically an untennable situation and people will simply move to another line of work. It took me OVER a year to get my first oil and gas job out of college and it is beginning to feel like my 13 years of experience is fairly moot as I have been looking for work for almost 4 months now, you would think from the law of averages that for every year I have in (plus a PE) that it would cut the unemployment time to almost nothing, send a few emails make a few calls and have a job ..... well thats not how its working.
I dont agree, I worked oil and gas as a process engineer for 13 years and was laid off. However, I was not a share holder or owner. Duration of time in industry or whether or not someone "made it their career" had nothing to do with it. Lots of people got the ax that were not short term seasonal hires.
So I would say the saudi's won, they put alot of people out of work and spiked unemployment rates in certain states, Alaska is still in big trouble, oil prices are fairly high and there is no hiring or drilling going on. Now that companies have learned "to do more with less" a lot of jobs are not being refilled even though oil is almost $70 barrel. I would guess its similar in north dakota.
Plus after big reorganizations and mass lay offs people loose their positions of leverage and are forced to begin reapplying from the street again with strangers (because of how much turmoil there was), that is typically an untennable situation and people will simply move to another line of work. It took me OVER a year to get my first oil and gas job out of college and it is beginning to feel like my 13 years of experience is fairly moot as I have been looking for work for almost 4 months now, you would think from the law of averages that for every year I have in (plus a PE) that it would cut the unemployment time to almost nothing, send a few emails make a few calls and have a job ..... well thats not how its working.
Four months? My husband was laid off twice during the downturn and was able to find a new job within weeks both times. Right now North Dakota has more jobs than people again. My husbands employer has numerous openings and cannot find people qualified to fill them. I'm sorry you are struggling but our unemployment numbers now show that jobs are there to be had. Additionally if you look at the numbers of families moving to the area (which can be viewed by school district enrollment), growth here never stopped. Even when the boom slowed families were still pouring into the area and people were still working.
Alaska is not considered one of the plays that Saudi Arabia was interested in diminishing since it is so costly to drill there. North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas were providing highly profitable drilling plays that became competitive with Saudi oil. That's what they were trying to take out of the game and they did not succeed as these fields are still active and never stopped, even when the price dropped.
I'd suggest you read the article I linked... it appears you didn't read it all the way through.
Four months? My husband was laid off twice during the downturn and was able to find a new job within weeks both times. Right now North Dakota has more jobs than people again. My husbands employer has numerous openings and cannot find people qualified to fill them. I'm sorry you are struggling but our unemployment numbers now show that jobs are there to be had. Additionally if you look at the numbers of families moving to the area (which can be viewed by school district enrollment), growth here never stopped. Even when the boom slowed families were still pouring into the area and people were still working.
Alaska is not considered one of the plays that Saudi Arabia was interested in diminishing since it is so costly to drill there. North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas were providing highly profitable drilling plays that became competitive with Saudi oil. That's what they were trying to take out of the game and they did not succeed as these fields are still active and never stopped, even when the price dropped.
I'd suggest you read the article I linked... it appears you didn't read it all the way through.
So then what made Alaska so attractive to drill in the first place, the costs of building all the infrastructure was staggering, and to just let it stagnate now?
The rigs were already there and the infrastructure, couldnt have been that much more to drill. Something happened in the USA between the 1970's and today.
I will have to find the job boards for north dakota and see what is there (run the numbers for COL vs pay vs quality of life, etc) and see if it pans out. All of my contacts were in Alaska except one friend who went from BP to north dakota.
A barrel of oil is around $54.00 so I don't see business booming.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
