Im A Roughneck on a drilling rig. Ask me anything.

How do you make it through the day? What kind of routine did you come up with to handle it? Foods/drinks/workouts, whatever.

Also, truck driver trainer here. Thank you for what you do. Always support other field workers.

Find random stuff to do. Usually start the day by putting some coveralls in the wash. Then you check how long you have between connections to give yourself an idea of what you can do in between. Shovel snow if its snowing. As for food, I always have protein bars in my locker, the dog house always has water,pop, and gatorade. In the morning they send us fruit and veggies and cheese and meats and stuff.

Ya, thanks for what you do man. Oilfield work is hard stuff, lost time at home, long hours...we couldnt do shit without the workers on the ground.

Yeah, it has its days. I dont plan on doing it much longer. Just trying to save up money to do my own thing. Maybe if I lived in alberta, it wouldnt be as bad but Im from ontario and its just too much time away from family and friends.

South Louisiana former oilfield worker here. Did a bunch of different things; hydrostatic pipe testing, roughnecked, built directional drilling tools, and a few other things... Get out as soon as you can. Cause it will suck you up. The money is to good.

Trust me brother. I'm in no way gonna get stuck there. I'm too smart for that. I'm goin back in a couple weeks for a month or two and then saying good bye for good. I'm not miserable when I'm out there because you gotta make it what it is but it's defiantly not fun being away from all my friends and family. Money isn't that important to me, I would rather make half the money and sleep in my own bed every night.

Just stick to it. When I decided to get out I was in a shop, home every night making close to a 100k one year, then the oilfield slumped in 2010 and I almost needed a second job. I decided to join the military. Good luck. I've never worked up north, but I know its tough in that weather. My step dad works for BP up on the north slope in Alaska. I'm very familiar with working up in that cold. What's your hitches 2 and 2?

2 on 1 off. By the time you drive to where you're stayin and then the day you gotta drive back it's basically 6 days off.

That sucks. I was working on a service rig that they wouldn't put me up in a hotel, but it was a 2 hour drive from my house. I had to be at the rig at 6. Didn't get off till 6. Two hour drive home. It was the worst.

Yeah service rigs are gutless like that.

Oh, how long does it take to drill a well, and how much time to prep or finish it up when you are getting started or breaking down the machinery?

There are a lot of factors. Depends how deep you're drilling, the formation of the earth, the tools you're using, might run into problems. The rig I was on was drilling about 4500meter wells. About 45 days is the average in the area where we were. I've been on a well that took 18days start to finish to drill. Set a record for fastest well in the area.

Set a record for fastest well in the area.

As far as money is concerned, does this help or hurt you? Do you get paid on a contract basis or hourly?

We we're hourly so it doesn't matter. Sometimes they give you bonuses but I've never got one. Cheap ass oil companies.

How common is use of hookers and crack? A lot of people I know are rigging and I hear the stories. Is it as common as people make it seem?

Hahaha well, I wouldn't say common, but yes. The one guy on my crew used to do crack in highschool, now he just smokes weed, does blow and E and stuff like that. And he got a hooker on one of his days off. There is a lot of guys who do drugs. You get young guys making $80,000+ a year and they're not very smart, what do you expect?

I'm not judging, I definitely expect it. Given the conditions, isolation, a big portion of the worker demographic and money - it's a recipe for hookers and drug abuse. I was just wondering if its as common as it sounds. I am 24 and from Nova Scotia. So as you can imagine, a lot of my friends are out there rigging and that's the shit they talk about.

I always heard about that kind of stuff before I went out but thought it was just exaggerations. But its not. At first you dont realize it then you look around and think to yourself "these guys are exactly like the guys people were talking about." Jacked up $80,000 truck, talkin about doin drugs, probably got a kid, just really dumb, make everything harder than it needs to be just because they wanna seem hard as fuck. Its pretty funny actually. I just started acting like the most rig hand guy ever just because its funny.

Good for you for keeping your head on straight! And yeah, I see the videos of my friends trashing their brand new trucks through the mud and just acting like idiots. They go straight from mommy and daddy's house to out there with no sense of appreciation for anything. They go out there to get a better living but a lot of them come crawling back to Nova Scotia with debt, drug habits and probably an STI or two. It's sad.

Yup, that'll happen. Had a couple "buddys" from highschool that went out there and they both started doin a lot of blow and they both got an STI. Just found out today that one of them is having a kid. classic alberta.

alberta dream. work the rigs. finance a truck. marry a stripper.

The Albertican dream.

What exactly DO you DO for your job? It's such a mystery to me... I always imagine big dudes digging enormous holes with shovels, and carrying heavy pipes from one place to another like some kind of extra dirty strong-man competition.

hahaha no, not even close. A rig I basically a giant drill. You drill pipe into the ground until you get where you need to be, then pull it all out. heres a video of whats called "tripping" so if you need to change the drill bit, you have to pull all the pipe out of the hole which is tripping out. After you change the bit, you gotta put it all back in the hole. thats what this is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t20Mxkm0_Y this is what I do when we need to. Its not like I do this all day everyday.

It's like a beautifully coordinated dance.

Every rig has a different set up so it doesn't always look like exactly like that but similar. You shouldn't be ducking under your tongs like that. That's just asking to get hit in the head.

How do you think you get treated? Do you think they do everything they can to keep good talent?

It really depends on the crew you have. I got lucky and had a good crew. But sometimes theres guys there who will be assholes just to be assholes. I dont have time for guys like that, I just dont care. If you're doing your job, they'll keep you. The last thing they want is to have to train another guy all over again to fill someones spot which happened a lot to the other crews on my rig.

Whats the pay like?

Here in Canada its different than in the states but I make $30.60 an hour. After 44 hours I make time and a half for the last 4 hours of every day.

$31.50 now, we got us a raise from the CAODC haha. Ensign roughneck here.

Fuckin eh rights bud!

Where and who are you working for? I saw you're from Canada, I'm going to assume Alberta since it's the oil capital of the country. Mostly just curious.

I'm not working right now but the last location I was at was fox creek Alberta. I work for Nabors.

Eww buddy. Fox Creek. I lived there for 3 years. Glad to hear you've moved on.

Fox Vegas!!!

Haven't heard of them. Used to live in Alberta. Just thought I'd get a little hometown nostalgia out of you.

Really? They're the biggest drilling company in the world.

I live in Oklahoma and we have a huge increased Earthquake activity. They are wanting to blame fracking. Do you believe this?

I know a little bit about fracking but Im not expert. From what I know, Its pretty safe and the problems that happen are from poor cement jobs. Fracking is much less invasive than the old type of drilling where you'd have to drill 10 wells in a line to hit the pocket of gas or oil. Now you can drill one directional well and frack it. I dont believe fracking is the increase in earthquakes (it may be, but I dont know the facts) I have a feeling thats just a thing to stop the fracking.

Have you always been a pusspusss or is it a recent development?

When I'm out there, I'm hard as fuck. When I'm home with all my friends they start to rub off on me and I always become a bit more soft and a puss puss. Especially my one friend Rob. He's a big pusspuss so when I'm around him, it makes me a pusspuss.

I heard he's actually a pretty cool guy

I don't know about that I heard that Rob guy can be a little bit of a dork. Heard he is starting to lose his hair too... not the kind of guy I want to hang around

I heard that too.

How do you feel about geologists?

A lot of them can be pretty needy. Complaining about late samples and stuff. They don't understand that we have a lot of shit to do. But we're all out there doin our thing. I was on one rig where the geo was like 24 and she was smokin hot so that was cool.

I just checked your profile, I see that your a geo. If you do get a job on a rig, just dont piss anyone off. Be cool and you'll be fine. If you can, bring donuts and coffee or candy and stuff like that. The guys will be more willing to do stuff for you. You can make a lot of money workin for an oil company.

Haha Yea, I used to be an equipment operator before I went back to school, I'd much rather be on the ground sometimes.

You've got it pretty good as a geo. Nice warm shack all day, stupid roughnecks like me bringing you samples. I hope you get a job with a company that will pay for day and night geo's because if not sometimes we gotta come wake you up and nobody likes that. Good luck out there brother, I hope you find something.

Roughnecks bring us the samples? Where do you work?

Last hole I was on, fox creek. It's always different but most of the time we drop them in a little door on the side of the shack.

What are the names of some mudlogging companies out there?

I can't remember any, sorry.

1. How many hours a day of work?
2. How demanding it is physically ?
3. Do you go home really tired and do nothing after work ?

12 hour days for 14 days straight. sometimes longer days if you're moving the rig. Ive worked a 18 hour day before and then got 4 hours of sleep to go do another 12 hour shift. It can be very physically demanding at times. Lots of heavy things to pick up and move around. If your on the drill floor all day its very tiring. If by go home you mean back to my room in camp with my little single bed, then yes. You get off at 7 and change and head back to camp, wash your hands then go eat dinner. After dinner you shower and maybe watch tv or go on the computer a bit but since you're out in the middle of no where wifi isnt too good. Try to go to bed around 10 and then you're up again at 6.

Damn man... How long you plan working in this field ? Do you know older guys that are doing this ( i mean over 50) ? Do they have back pain or any physical problems ?

Thanks for your answers

Im going back out in a couple weeks and Im just gonna do a couple hitchs. A hitch is the 2 weeks and then Im probably done. As for old guys, My last driller was actually 67 years old. Been working for the company for almost 50years. He could barely stand for more than 10 mins because his knees were so bad. I get bad carpal tunnel in my forearms when Im working and its not fun. Its not something you wanna do for a long time especially when guys out there smoke and chew constantly. And they eat shitty food and drink pop all day.

how much of the operation do you think could be automated to improve safety?

There are rigs out there that are completely automated. Basically guys making sure everything is running but as far as the pipe that go in the ground its just a bunch of robotic arms that grab the pipe. Its pretty cool. Thats where its all heading, I was on an older rig so there was still so old school stuff but eventually it will be modernized.

Holy shit that's awesome. I do pressure testing in The Bakken, and seeing something like that would be strange. It's all old school out here, some rigs are still Kelley rigs. I can't imagine being a rig hand, seems like pretty rough ass work.

Yeah from what i've heard, kelly rigs suck ass. Not fun. I was on a pretty old rig but we at least had a top drive.

How often do you masterbate?

while at work? at least 5 times. Its a mandatory safety thing.

How long have you been a roughneck? I was a rough neck for about 3 years in Australia, my old man has been around the fields for about 40 years.

What are your crew sizes like? We had 5 people for a top drive double rig. Always felt undermanned.

2 years. We had a 6 man crew. Myself and my brother were the roughnecks, motorman, two derrickhands and a driller.

What's your favorite ice cream?

How do you deal with being incredibly handsome?

Have you noticed women taking an interest in you because of your job? And is that a problem?

What do you want to do once you're done with this job?

Don't eat ice cream that much but chocolate cookie doe is a go to.

I don't try to hard to look handsome so that way I give other guys a chance

In alberta the girls hear you work on a drilling rig and assume you're just a typical douchebag rigger but in Ontario they think it's bad ass and they know you make lots of money.

And after I'm done I hope to get into car sales or any type of sales. I like people.

Ah! You replied! swoon

If you were closer I'd hit on your more or offer to draw a tat for you (because I stalked the first couple pages of your account). But I think I've been creepy enough for my SFW account. I mean normally you don't think of 22yr old females being creepy but I think I'm an exception. Sooo...thanks for doing the AMA!

Hahaha well if you can draw a tattoo I would love for you to do that.

I can ;) I have a BA in scientific illustration. So drawing is kinda my thing.

I want a full back tattoo of Zeus fighting the Olympians on mount Olympus.

Haha...are you sure you don't want like a koi fish..jk. But your idea would actually cost money, unless we were like skype friends first. ;)

Yeah that's super involved/detailed/time consuming. All 12? Why is he fighting them?

Hey I was just going over this AMA again and saw that I didn't reply to you again. But if you could do a really good job on the art work, I would be willing to pay for it.

How is everyday living on the rig like, and what are some current safety concerns while living on the rig?

I was in a camp. Small camp just with the two crews, day and night, two cooks and a campy. Each room has two single beds with a side table in between. Its basically a dorm room. So when you're sleeping the guy on your cross shift is working and then when you go to work he sleeps. A lot depends on the cook. If you have shitty food it makes life a lot worse. Thats pretty much the only thing you have to look forward to in the day. So if theres shitty food, everyone will bitch and complain about. The big concern is H2S gas or sour gas. That shit will kill you but we have sensors and all kinds of safety precautions for that. You have to take a course for it. slips trips and falls. Crush points, lots of heavy stuff that will kill you. We use steam to de ice stuff on the rig and steam on your skin is terrible. Cooks you from the inside. And just being cold. It can get cold as fuck out there. I've worked in -48C. No matter what you do, you can not get your hands and feet warm. It sucks.

Are you adept at handling your big tool, as shown in your picture? And do you want to be a tool push to really make use of it?

Are we talking about dicks right now? Cuz that's what it sounds like.

What is a floorhand?

How did you get a job in the oil patch?

What sort of personalities do you think do well in the oil patch/as a roughneck?

Any good stories?

floorhand is the two guys that work on the drill floor with the pipe and stuff. If you've ever seen any of those drilling shows, its the two guys throwing tongs around the pipe and shit. As for personalities, helps to be funny. Im a jokester so I get along great with most people. A lot of guys out there are very uneducated and can be pretty racist and homophobic but you just kind of ignore that stuff. And stories, too many. You gotta keep yourself sane out there so you do stupid stuff to have fun. We would feed the ravens and call them our cats. I made a toboggan and ride it down the snow hill or me and another guy on the crew would pull each other around on it. Anything to pass the time out there.

Derrickhand here. How can you handle how boring a triple is? Seriously man you will have more fun on a double or single.

I was on a shitty old triple. Its an old kelly rig turned into a top drive. she aint like the fancy new triple with ST80's or anything. I was still throwing tongs and shit. But after awhile that gets boring too and I really just get sick of working hard.

Working hard comes with the job title. That's what makes a rig hand.

Which is fine but I know there's plenty of nicer rigs to work on. I've worked on two of the oldest shittiest rigs my company has. Every replacement roughneck that comes to the rig tells me how shitty it is. I want to experience working on a modern rig with good equipment.

Floors, motors, derricks or driller?

You said you don't plan on doing it much longer, so what's next?

My husband and I spent the past nearly two years in the Bakken oil patch in North Dakota and I will always have great respect for the oilfield and the men and women that make it run.

I'm a floorhand. What's next is hopefully becoming a car salesman. I've been looking into Sales lately and it's something that I would be good at. I'm good with people and I think I would enjoy it. That and income properties. I went to school for carpentry and I went to work on the rigs to save up some money to buy a house. I've saved a good amount so I'm probably just going to go back for a couple hitches and then call it quits. I will always be very appreciative of what the job has given me. Lots of money for good times and freedom but it's not something I want to keep on doing.

What's the worst thing that happened to delay a well you were on?

I was once on a rig where they had drilled a good 4000ft down they then tripped out to change the bit to one they could go horizontal with and while they were out somebody dropped junk into the hole all the way to the bottom. They had to trip in and grind it up then trip in again to fish the junk out then they finally were able to trip in to continue the drillng.

Yeah I've heard plenty of stories like that. The one well I was on, they were stuck in the hole for 2weeks. They were trying everything and they were about to cut it off and abandon the well when all of a sudden it broke loose.

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Look online to find where the companies are based out of. In the states you're gonna be lookin at Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are you're big oil/gas states. I went into the office with my brother and my friend and we did a short interview and just waited for a called. You gotta be patient but it'll happen.

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Yeah it sucks. I live in Ontario and just drove to alberta and was just winging it.

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once it gets cold. Thats what it is in canada anyways. September its starts getting busy, october even more so and then november its in full swing.

Do you ever feel claustrophobic?

Not really. Sometimes you gotta crawl into tight spaces but its never too bad. I dont get claustrophobic but I can see how you would if you did.

I almost died on a drill pipe rack once in the Louisiana summer heat.

Do you hate drill pipe as much as I do?

I've pinched my fingers in many a drill pipe. Gotta watch out for those fuckers.

have you ever thought about working offshore instead?

Offshore you need a lot of experience. They only hire Derrick hands and drillers. You need all kinds of special tickets and courses. I'm not planning on doing it very long so it's not something I even think about.

I have the same scale on your imgur pic. What do you use it for?

I went to school for carpentry/building technology. Used it the drafting and blueprint classes.

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Nope if you've got the tickets you should be good. Try for land based rigs first. That's the best. Services rigs are shitting. I've never heard anyone say good things about them. But just go in there willing to work hard and you'll get a job eventually. Be patient. Know that it might take a week or two but I will happen. Once the season is in full swing, they always need guys. Most of the drilling rig companies are in Nisku, alberta. It's like 20 outside of edmonton. Nabors (which I work for) Trinidad, precision are your big drilling companies. Always tell them you have a car or truck or whatever, but let them know you can get to the rig wherever it is. If you don't have a car, lie, then when you get the job, find a way to get there. Sometimes it's fly in jobs where you meet at a small airport and they fly you in sometimes you gotta drive 9 hours to get to the rig. You learn a lot along the way. My brother and I have stayed in who knows how many different hotels. We find short term rentals that are fully furnished houses for a week at a time. You just kinda figure it out as you go. It can be fun.

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For sure, man. I'm going back out in a couple weeks. Who knows, Maybe we'll end up working together. Best of luck brother, lots of money to be made but I'll tell you this, make your money, have a plan, and get out. You'll meet plenty of miserable fucks out there who are stuck there because they've got all kinds of debt. The money is great but it's not worth throwing away your life. You have to under stand that you work away from your friends and family for 3 weeks out of every month. And you work twice as many hours in a week than the average person.

How long do you think it will be before we run out of oil?

We'll never run out. There's plenty there to last until we find alternative forms of energy. I was working up north of fort mac at a project in firebag. $10 million dollars of crude oil flowed through the pipes every day and there's enough oil in the sands up there for that project to last 100 years.

How easy is it for someone with no experience to get a job on a drilling rig? How much could I expect to make working on a drilling rig my first year?

In peek season they're always looking for guys. Theres a really high turnover rate. You get paid every 2 weeks but the way your days off are and when they pay you, the pay checks are all different. theres a 6/7 day paycheck which will be around $2,900. a 10 day which is $3,600 and 11 day one which is around $3,900. They can be bigger sometimes if you worked a holiday too. I worked it out that if you work a full year you would make over $80,000 after tax but if you're new its hard to work all year round because once it starts to warm up rigs shut down so theres always guys looking for work.

Would I need any sort of specific training or course before I could apply for work on a drilling rig?

H2S alive is a mandatory course but when I got hired they set up a time for you to go in. Then you do an orientation and a piss test. The biggest thing is you gotta be willing to walk right into the office and hand in a resume. They have so many guys applying they need to see a face. No point in applying online because they're not gonna waste their time setting something up for a guy who might not even show up.

And finally, how's the social life like in the town you live in while working? Any women or is it mostly lonely nights for most men?

I wasn't in a town. I was in a tiny camp in the middle of the forest 45 mins away from the closest shit hole town.

Why does it shut down when the weather gets warm?

The areas that we drill in are sometimes swampy areas also it get really muddy so the roads go to shit so you can't get trucks in there to deliver stuff.

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I was not. And I've never heard of it.

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Yeah I only work land based rigs, never done off shore but I've heard some cool stories about it. I dont know if the name of that book has the same meaning but the rigs I've worked on were owned by a company call Command Drilling until Nabors bought them. Their colours were Red and Tan and thats an old saying "if you can work on the red and tans, you can work on any rig." So maybe thats what the green and tan is. A company whos colours were green and tan.

Roughly how many new guys actually are capable of doing the job? From what I have heard drilling attracts all sorts of people looking to make some good money, but in reality not many people can handle a job like that.

Turn over rate of 1 in 3. I had a guy come half way thru the shift left 4 hours in to the shift the next day. Some guys just can't handle it.

When was the last time you cried?

May when we had to put my dog down.

I'm a chain hand on a single rig in Kansas.

What kind of rig do you work on?

Top drive triple. It's against the law to use chain in Canada now.

I've worked in refineries (CLAWR Foster Creek, Husky Ram River) and mines in Saskatchewan. I have a good understanding about the safety aspect and things like that but as someone who's aspiring for change and possibly get started on the rigs with little knowledge in that respect, what advice do you have for someone who's fairly green in the field?

btw, bad ass picture

If you can work in a mine, you can work on a rig. Its really not that bad. Just hope you get a good crew and do as your told. If they like you, your life will be way easier.

Right on. Have you ever been with a bad crew? How was that like? I've heard stories of guys kicking roughnecks to the ground, spitting on them, making them cry etc.. how common is that?

Anyone who would let someone do that too them is pathetic. Drilling companies hate that shit and they dont want that around anymore. Thats old school shit and they cant have that. I worked with a kid who got pissed on by a driller and that driller is hard pressed for work. I have a buddy whos worked for him and said hes the scabbiest mother fucker hes ever met. But ive had a couple guys on my crew who will do stupid shit but I would never let anyone physically do anything to me. I'd probably kill someone one if they spit on me. There's a lot more normal guys who do this work now, they're not all crazy cowboys anymore. But bad shit does happen.

Hey, kiddhitta... not sure if you're still here, but I'll ask anyways.

I'm going to roustabout on a jackup in the Gulf—I just got my rig assignment and ship out date—and I'm a bit worried. I've been doing all the mandatory courses like Rigger training (1 day bullshit course), BOSIET (water survival), Basic Firefighting, and Rigpass. Is there anything I should know before I head out there? Any skills, like knot tying or some shit that I should try and learn before I head out to the rigs? I don't want to be fucking useless when I'm out there, and I'm afraid all these tough-as-nails roughnecks are going to be disgusted that this skinny Asian kid with no discernible life skills is in their crew.

I was on a land based rig so I'm not to sure about off shore stuff. But you basically gotta be a bitch for a while to prove yourself. There's gonna be guys who will treat you like shit just because they think it's cool. Just listen and always be willing to help. If you hear someone ask for something, go get it right away. Always be doing something. If you don't know what to do, ask someone. Good luck out there buddy.

Thanks, brother. Is there anything you wish you knew before you got out there?

Not really, man. Its a great experience and you learn a lot about yourself. If you can do that, you can do anything. I guarantee you'll meet some interesting people. As much as I hate it, it can be fun.

How do you view gas prices? If you see a big drop in price is that good day to fill up ?

Get it while it's cheap. I was drilling for natural gas, not oil.

How does it feel to be a real man? You are so super cool I wanna be just like you if I ever loose significant brain function.

I feels pretty damn good brother. I'm a hard as fuck roughneck 100% man. I fuck fight and trip pipe.

Why are you always hard? Isn't it annoying when you wear pants?

Gift is the curse my friend. You just gotta roll with it.

Do you like being a pipeliner?

Pipelining is different from what I do.

So how gay is everyone on that rig since there are obviously no women and you spend all your time with men? How gay are you now? Does your work mate look sexier to you all the time now?

It's like a sports team. You do what would be considered gay stuff in the locker room but that's just guy stuff.