"The only way to learn it [drilling] is to live it," says
R.D. Drake, an oil drilling consultant.
Joey Roth of New Mexico, a senior drilling foreman, agrees. "It takes about
10 years before you know what you're doing," she says. "And at 10 years, you
know enough to be dangerous."
She says oil drilling is complex, arduous, time-consuming work that gives
her a sense of satisfaction.
"With me, it's simple," she says. "When I put in a good day of work, nobody
got hurt, everything went smoothly and we had every piece of equipment we
needed."
She adds that her workday is longer than the average. "A really short day
for me is 16 hours," says Roth. "The normal is 18 hours. There have been times
when I've been up for two or three days."
Roth started working in the oil business as a truck driver in Alaska. She
says she became a roustabout (laborer on an oil rig) shortly after.
She worked her way into being a foreman, becoming the first woman oil derrick
supervisor in the history of her company. Then Roth decided to go to college
to be an engineer. She says she tried office work once.
"I've been an engineer in an office," she says. "I didn't like it so I
went back to the job sites."
Roth says she enjoys the constant travel and changes of oil derrick work.
She says that every new site also brings opportunities to meet people. However,
that also brings a responsibility to learn communication.
"When you pick up a new rig, you've got to know what the crew knows," says
Roth. "People don't walk up to you and tell you what they know. You've got
to be a people person."
Roth says she's worked on land and ocean drill sites. She says she prefers
offshore work, which makes her social and romantic life unusually strained.
"We work two weeks on and two weeks off," she says. "It's an odd balance.
Some people can do real well with the way you work and other people don't."
Roth adds that she never dated anyone she worked with. She says for women
in oil drilling, it's important to be professional at all times to keep the
respect of their male co-workers.
"You're more a fellow driller than a woman, and that's the way it ought
to be," she says. "You never become 'one of the boys' and probably would never
want to. But you do form a camaraderie, a brotherhood.
"If you're sincere about your job, the men will bend over backward to help
you. If you're there for ulterior motives, you'll lose respect fast."
Drake says he enjoys the traveling that drilling offers. He also says that
the wages of the business are above average for someone unable to attend college
immediately after high school.
"When I was a kid, we were migrant [farm workers]," said Drake. "I didn't
get a real good education. I married young, had two kids and went to the oil
fields."
He says his favorite fringe benefit of drilling is the equipment. "You've
got engines on these rigs: it's the power of them I enjoy," says Drake. "I
worked on a rig that had one million pounds of pulling power."
Drake says that while oil drilling offers above-average income to those
without a college education, it's also common for students and graduates to
work on derricks as they await openings in other areas. Sometimes, he says,
the college-educated stay in the oil business.
"I've worked with kids with degrees out on the rigs," he says. "I ask them,
'What are you doing here?' They told me the money was good."
Drake says in spite of his enjoyment of drilling, it's not a job he would
recommend to young people.
"It's so up and down," he says. "There's a lot of oil consultants like
me -- out of work. I don't know why I like drilling so much, but I do. I begged
my sons to stay out of the rigs."
Doug Gibson, a drilling instructor, says the money in drilling is good,
but has to be accepted with the fact that the industry is always changing.
"It's not a new thing that the industry fluctuates," he says. "When the
industry is busy, the pay is real good, but you can't rely on it."
Gibson says many drillers, like him, turn to teaching to stabilize their
income and home lives. In addition, he says there's a particular stress that
comes with working around dangerous equipment with other people.
"A driller is faced every day with the possibility of one of his crewmembers
being injured," says Gibson. "The possibility of being injured is very high."
Jimmy Bell of Texas, an oil drilling consultant, says while immediate injuries
happen to some drillers, long-term wear on the body happens to all. "There's
a lot of heavy lifting," he says. "I've got a [chronically] sore back right
now."
Bell agrees that the money, travel and satisfaction are incitements to
stay in the drilling industry. However, he also agrees the fluctuation, danger
and long-term body wear are reasons to stay out of it.
"It takes a special person to be a roughneck," says Bell.