new oilfield

There's nothing quite like an empty office to totally quash your interest in doing work. The office was basically empty on Monday because of some sort of holiday or something. Same goes for last Friday. Slackers, every one of them. Not that that stopped the actual work that we do. Actually, all the drilling rigs we follow shut down for Christmas (though one of them was planning to work through the weekend until they had to do some remedial work that forced them to wait on cement for a day).

Apparently, the whole attempt-to-reach-a-suitable-point-to-shut-down-for-Christmas thing is a fairly new development that started about two years ago in this area. It's part of the "new oilfield" that's all warm and cuddly and compassionate. No, not really, but it is a consequence of the "new oilfield" which is a reference to the intense focus on safety that started 10-15 years ago. Basically, it became part of the culture of the major players in the industry that safety will come first no matter what the cost. (The smaller and more independent companies do not have the same safety culture in place. It's there, but nowhere near as strong.) That safety focus can be restrictive at times in terms of hours worked or operations performed but it comes from the understanding that it's become too expensive to be unsafe.

However, the "new oilfield" is sometimes meant in a mildly derogative manner by older hands who disdain how warm and fuzzy the industry has become. In times like these where the oil and gas industry is expanding, it's much harder for companies to fill positions. As a consequence, they offer incentives to work and better hours and so forth. Here in the San Juan Basin, one major water hauling company (and possibly all the other major ones) has stopped working at nights. Ostensibly, it's a safety issue to work and drive at night, but it's pretty clear that it's an attempt to lure and retain people. That particular development has forced us to adjust one of the operations that we performed that involved having a water hauler go with one of our cement crews. Somewhat ironically, we've adjusted by changing our process such that we no longer need the water hauler.

In other news, I'll be back in Los Altos for a couple days starting Jan 5 and I leave the morning of Jan 8. So yeah, I'll see some of you in a week.