Here in Texas I heard the oil field companies are laying off a large amount of employees. Gas prices down my street are the lowest I've seen in 6~7yrs...$1.95 a gallon. Is the Oil Industry taking a crash and for how long?
Oil field Jobs
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I have family and friends in the industry. They're as busy now as they've ever been. Profits may not be as large, but cash flow is king. At the very least, current projects will continue, but new projects may slow.
What that means is water companies that supply frack operations will feel the squeeze first. Jobs like pumpers, roustabouts, measurement techs will continue to be busy. We still need the stuff.
What that means is water companies that supply frack operations will feel the squeeze first. Jobs like pumpers, roustabouts, measurement techs will continue to be busy. We still need the stuff.
I am far from an expert in the field. But, I think the nose dive in oil prices have a couple of causes:
1. We had HUGE shale oil output last year
2. We are trying to isolate Russia and hurt them economically.
I believe that once the second goal has been sufficiently achieved, we will probably see another upward swing in gas and oil prices.
1. We had HUGE shale oil output last year
2. We are trying to isolate Russia and hurt them economically.
I believe that once the second goal has been sufficiently achieved, we will probably see another upward swing in gas and oil prices.
Overall the oil and gas industry achieves mind numbing quarterly profits compared to other sectors. OPEC isn't cutting production, so hopefully consumers who were getting ass raped with $4 per gallon prices for years can now enjoy the low prices for a good long while. The greedy oil corps will hurt the little guy first by hammering their loyal workers vs. hurting their bottom line.
I just filled up for $1.49 so no complaints here.
I just filled up for $1.49 so no complaints here.
It's likely to get worse before it gets better. Natural gas is killing coal as well.
Here in TX the oil fields are profitable down to around $40-$45 barrel. Most leases have clauses that force companies to drill/pump oil regardless of price or profit though. The oil will continue to flow even if it's at a lesser rate.
I work in o&g/energy in Colorado.
We actually have been setting daily records for how busy we are. Moving into a bigger building and now run 24 hour operations instead of 12.
Paging rocketsurgeon. Hes your guy to ask... He knows more than I do.
Fortunately I'm in the water side of the industry so we won't be slowing down anytime soon
We actually have been setting daily records for how busy we are. Moving into a bigger building and now run 24 hour operations instead of 12.
Paging rocketsurgeon. Hes your guy to ask... He knows more than I do.
Fortunately I'm in the water side of the industry so we won't be slowing down anytime soon
I also work in the Oil & Gas industry in Colorado. We are BUSY! We own and operate 2 natural gas pipelines and an oil line. From everything I have seen here, it doesn't look like we will slow down anytime soon. I'm in the IT department and work with controllers daily so I get a little bit of a heads up as to how much they are moving at any given point.
Indeed, we supply and broker downhole casing and tubing at my company and we've had a few programs just either slow down or they aren't running all of their rigs at once right now. We're definitely staying busy still. I talked to my neighbor on New Years Eve he is outside sales for a large company and said December was their best sales month all year. None of you guys on this forum work for U.S. Steel Corp. do you I heard this morning they are to lay off 614 employees.
Certain projects will continue. It all depends on AFE vs. production. Depends on your investors, if you have any too. It'll make these companies that had high AFE and expenditures really look at their costs now.
All the service companies have already felt the blow. They've laid out hundreds months ago and are still laying off people. I talk to most of them (Halliburton, Schlum, Baker, all the little guys too) every week or so. Rig hand jobs will be the same way. Certain people at the rigs will still have a job, but with the majors laying down tons and tons of rigs, jobs are going to be lost. Profits are there to have 20+ rigs running. I want to say CLR is going from a projected 3x rigs to 15 or lower.
We've been increasing production for awhile now. The shale plays like the SCOOP here in OK have steadily increased in the last 3 or so years. Reserves are being increased also. It's still very expensive to drill though.
Who knows if WE are trying to do that to Russia, but if we aren't...the Saudi's are for sure. Russia is taking massive hits as oil/gas is more than half their economy. Other OPEC nations like Ven., Iran, etc are taking HUGE hits too. OPEC is a bunch of shit. It's the major players in it and then everyone else. Saudi's have the capital to try to slow down drilling in the US while taking big losses daily. It's a lot of money lost for them, but they can afford it. They see our production growing and want to make sure we'll always NEED them for energy. What better way than to drive production down.
The majors do. There are A LOOOT more smaller oil/gas companies than your mind numbing profit companies. They also take the risks, granted it's on investor dollars, but they're taking it. Either way, the price of oil/bbl was way too high. Anyone in the industry could see that. It was bound to fall and fall quickly, it was just how much would it fall. If we could just say screw OPEC and build up our reserves at $70-ish/oil per bbl, I'd think everyone would be happy. Consumers paying $1.75-$2/gal. and companies can still have a profit for exploration. So many people are keyboard engineers and/or geologist and it pisses me off to see it. They think it's just closing your eyes, pointing to a spot on a map, poking a hole and out comes millions.
We need to be building our nat. gas storage! It's crazy low right now
Certain fields are, but parts of your Eagleford, Buda, etc are not or might not be. Too many factors to say with 100% certainty. If anyone has leases with continuous drilling clauses...I feel sorry for them. Horrible lease haha
Dec. might have been the best year as prices likely took a plunge from them. Our guy from Baker Hughes said they were still busy in Nov./Dec. too, but they had to lower their prices to stay busy.
I work in the offshore exploration side of the industry and business was quite slow this year since the move to land drilling was done following the moratorium in the gulf. Business for us has never recovered to the pre-moratorium levels. The decrease in activity recently is definitely not good, for us anyway. We will have to see what 2015 has in store for us!
Don't forget about the smaller companies that provide the services to these large oil companies. Those large profits aren't always carried down to us. Incredibly low prices are good but jobs are better.
Don't forget about the smaller companies that provide the services to these large oil companies. Those large profits aren't always carried down to us. Incredibly low prices are good but jobs are better.
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It will probably be around for awhile and the effects as well. It certainly is doing what it was expected to do though, crush the Russian economy. The ruble keeps dropping. That's what you get when your whole economy depends on the sale of your oil. The bad part of political war, the middle and lower class feel the effects of it.
We're holding our breath here, waiting to see what gets decided. To be honest, there needed to be an adjustment in pay for the shale fields. This boom was crazy; comparable to the Gold Rush, with all of its issues - the Dakotas are practically the Wild West right now. Hotels in Midland, TX should NOT be $3-400+ a night! It's ridiculous, and unsustainable.
LOL...not exactly. What our wonderful media fails to report is that while companies like Shell and Exxon "make" mind numbing profits, they also SPEND mind numbing amounts to get it. Their percent profit, while good, is far from the biggest in comparison with other industries:
LOL...not exactly. What our wonderful media fails to report is that while companies like Shell and Exxon "make" mind numbing profits, they also SPEND mind numbing amounts to get it. Their percent profit, while good, is far from the biggest in comparison with other industries:
pharmaceutical employee checking in :woot:
You sir, are the devil incarnate and are fleecing the middle class and poor of great nation of its hard earned money. How dare you. You bastard. /sarcasm :lol1:
Gross Profit is much different from Net Profit, yet the media forgets that aspect. They just say profit so they can throw their spin...
The smaller companies are taking a huge hit. I've had 3 friends laid off, two different companies. I dont feel sorry for them tho, how much money made compared to their worth ethics that I know, is mind boggling. I wouldn't of hired them to sweep.
Edit: The cost of living in the areas of big oil/gas is insane, price gouging is ridiculous. Yet accepted..
Edit: The cost of living in the areas of big oil/gas is insane, price gouging is ridiculous. Yet accepted..
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