Drilling rigs, service rigs, or well testing?

[bigbuck]

For You guys with experience in the oil patch, I was just wondering your opinion on which might be the best route to go with? Work is slow right now for me and am wanting to start up in the oil patch. Im 23 years old.
Not really sure if I know the difference between a drilling rig and a service rig and if its worth it to do well testing for less $? Your opinions would be great or any other info!

[chasingtail]

I would pick the drilling rig, things are slow now with break up. Should pick up by June though. Apply to all 3 and take what you can get, can always change positions after.

Drilling rig: Drills the initial well:

Sevice/Completion Rig: Services or Completes the well.

Well Testing: I never liked it, got blasted with H2S all the time.

[ctd]

Coil Tubing is a excellant place to be if you don't mind making a bit less money then the other services but the expierance you gain is second to none.
Coil does well services functions but they are more versatile then Service rigs. The money is decent with salarys and job bonus's. The work is steady.

Drilling rigs make great money if your on a rig that works steady.
Service rigs make great money if your on a rig that works steady.
Testing makes good mony if you work steady.
They all make good money if you work steady.

[07icanam]

I have worked around drilling rigs only, from a lease hand to a mud man and in between. I'd say to stay on the drilling side if you are wanting to work rigs, with the new rigs that are out in the field right now its not as tough of a job as it used to be. My brother is a well tester and they make real good money as soon as you work your way up, you will have more of a career in well testing if you stick with it than the rigs, not saying there are no careers on the rigs but more so they are jobs and not careers.

[hal53]

Originally Posted by chasingtail

I would pick the drilling rig, things are slow now with break up. Should pick up by June though. Apply to all 3 and take what you can get, can always change positions after.

Drilling rig: Drills the initial well:

Sevice/Completion Rig: Services or Completes the well.

Well Testing: I never liked it, got blasted with H2S all the time.

If you got "blasted with H2S" continually....I'd either ask for a better supervisor or a different testing company...

[Cal]

In your position, given the choice I would deffinatly rule out service rigs. I've done some time on both drilling and service rigs and service rigging was harder by far. I cant say for all service rigs but working heavy oil on the particular rig I worked on the the work was harder, the pace was faster, the crews were rougher, the shifts were often longer, and the rotation when it existed at all was 21 days on and 3 days off. Some of the pushes and drillers treated their crews worse than most people treat their dogs. Some of the stuff they did to guys I would rather go to jail then let happen to me so untill I started getting some respect I discreatly carried a switchblade that I thankfully never had to use, and I used to be such a nice guy. We once had our water jug spill on the way to work, despite the fact that we were only 20 minuits away from a plant gas plant that had water neither the push nor the consultant would go get us any. We worked in 25 degree weather for 14 hourse that day with no water, if you did that to an animal you'd probably be charged.

Stupid thing is that if I ever went rigging again I'd probably go back to the service rigs. If you can hack it it realy does have a way of getting into your blood. The trick is to react badly enough to abuse that guys think twice about trying it again without starting a fight, a fight is probably not going to go very well for you.

[The Fisherman Guy]

Go drillin' and don't look back.

I did, and look where I ended up

[bigbuck]

Doesnt spring break up finish earlier then june usually? Thanks for the info guys

[Cal]

Originally Posted by bigbuck

Doesnt spring break up finish earlier then june usually? Thanks for the info guys

In wabasca there is no spring breakup at all if your on the right rig for CNRL. They do let some rigs go in the spring but usualy keep some drilling rigs and quite a few service rigs buisy all year. Most other companies dont seem to think that completely destroying a road just to get a rig moved is cost effective though

[CeeZee]

You could give Fracing a try, I enjoyed it, good money, lots and lots of benifits, and great days off too. See alot of country!

[bigbuck]

[QUOTE=CeeZee;913310]You could give Fracing a try, I enjoyed it, good money, lots and lots of benifits, and great days off too. See alot of country![/QUOTE
What exactly is fracing CeeZee?

[Joe Fehr]

You know that thing everyone is saying is almost as bad as the oil sands.
Go either coil or frac (Trican, Halliburton, Sangel, CalFrac, BJ) all these companies have both. Learn fast move up quick and you'll be loving it.

The rigs were hard on guys before but things are changing from the old mentality of head down ass up for 16hrs a day with no breaks. From the sounds of things there will be no shortage of work around as for skilled workers well

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Joe Fehr

You know that thing everyone is saying is almost as bad as the oil sands.
Go either coil or frac (Trican, Halliburton, Sangel, CalFrac, BJ) all these companies have both. Learn fast move up quick and you'll be loving it.

The rigs were hard on guys before but things are changing from the old mentality of head down ass up for 16hrs a day with no breaks. From the sounds of things there will be no shortage of work around as for skilled workers well

That stuff about service rigging I wrote about happened in the winter of 2010. The rigs have deffinatly cleaned up alot but if you walk into a dog house and the push informs you that he runs "the last western rig in these parts" theres a good chance your about to get a real good look at that old mentality.