Hauling Water in the Oilpatch : The Good, the Bad, and the Customer
78The Three Questions
A gentleman interested in starting his own trucking company to haul water in the oil patch asked three very good questions:
1. Who is the customer?
2. Where do you take the bad water?
3. Where do you get the good water?
The Good Water
The good water, i.e. fresh water, comes from the usual sources: Rivers, ponds, streams, or even (on occasion) from city water outlets.
That said, there is no greater challenge for any oil company than the task of securing access to adequate fresh water sources for drilling operations. It takes a lot of fresh water to run a drill bit a couple of miles down into the Earth, and quite often both individuals and governmental entities who can throw roadblocks in the way...do just that.
Any trucker hauling fresh water to drilling rigs will "pull" water from only those sources authorized for his company to use--or face the consequences. Likewise, those sources may change from day to day. Examples from my own past employment (as a driver being instructed by the dispatcher) include:
--ABC or XYZ pond.
--ABC or XYZ set of frac tanks, where other drivers have previously filled the tanks from "root" sources such as a pond or river.
--#123 City Outlet.
--Such and Such Creek at This or That specific location.
--Big Bad River at This or That specific location.
--Whatchacallit Canal.
Or not. Today's approved "pulling" location may be tomorrow's prohibited access.
The Bad Water
Bad Water is a term you don't hear much in the patch. However, production water does need to be disposed of in a responsible way. Production water is the water that comes out of a completed well once the well is up and running, pumping crude oil (or natural gas) out of the ground. It can be nasty.
Hint: Do not drink this stuff!
Bonus Hint: Do not flick your Bic anywhere NEAR this stuff. Unless you enjoy being "flashed", having an explosion blow you clear off the top of a tank and the skin off the front of your face. Which one young genius did on the Roan Plateau in Colorado during the time of my employment in that area. Twice. No I.Q. test has been administered to the company that failed to fire him after the first time.
The usual steps in disposal include:
1. From the wellhead, the water flows into onsite tanks for short term holding.
2. Tanker trucks haul the water from those tanks to a lined storage pit for temporary storage. The drivers who perform this service require specialized training to do this correctly; incompetence in transferring production water from on-pad holding tanks will produce a whole host of problems. Each and every load of water pulled from each and every tank is measured and recorded in considerable detail.
The storage pit applicable to a particular well will usually be located within a fifteen mile radius (or less) from the well location.
3. Other tanker trucks then reload the "bad water" from the storage pits and haul it to licensed disposal facilities--which are gigantic "pit farms" capable of handling enormous amounts of water. The disposal facility may be located 100 miles or more distant from the temporary storage. Due to the much longer driving times between loading and unloading, many more trucks are required to empty the temporary storage pits than were required to fill them...but these drivers do not need as much training.
The Customer
The Customer is the oil company responsible for any given oil well location, either during the drilling process or after. While a new hole is being drilled, the contact person is in most cases the "company hand" who lives on location and supervises the overall drilling operation (which is done by a specialty drilling company contracted to the oil company).
Some operations leave the choice of water haulers to the man who sees them at work daily (the onsite company hand) while others go for overall contracts decided by distant corporate offices. Either way, the man bossing the drilling rig pad can tell you who to see...and he'll be the fellow signing off on your paperwork when you start delivering loads.
The company hand can make you or break you, so be nice!
Even if he's not. Especially if he's not. The paycheck you save will most certainly be your own.
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Very interesting stuff, Fred! Up and all that.
Fred, sounds like a darn hard way to make a living to me. But I'm sure there are those who love it like in any trade. Very interesting information.
Becky: The Hubs are at least a very good way for me not to forget what I learned in the patch, eh? :)
Bill: Thanks.
Mike: It is a darn hard way to go, but it pays very well AND I loved it, ESPECIALLY full time night shift, out there alone in the dark, a small flashlight in my mouth and not a boss in sight.
Of course, it's also true that even among the pool of water haulers, few appreciated night shift. One big dude, a really great guy and hard worker, couldn't for the life of him comprehend how I did what I did. He tried it--for all of ten nights, and then went back to day shift.
Used to tell me, "Ghost, you're a f**cking ANIMAL!" Which was high praise indeed.
His #1 problem? He compulsively falls asleep around midnight. Which is when I get my second wind. If I didn't need to be up some during the day for Pam, my "usual" schedule here would likely put me to bed around the time the sun came up.
Thanks to you & Bill both for finding the info interesting. I know I did when I was living it.
It is interesting. Having never really been near the oil industry I never think about the use of water, as obvious as that need might be.
Interesting. I told my husband that with all I learn from reading hubs and such I could be a brain surgeon, a spinal surgeon, an Arthritis Specialist, a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician, or a hair stylist...Thanks for the info, but I doubt I'll ever use it. Better to be a brain surgeon! lol, Susieq
dahoglund: No reason you would think about it if you've never been around the oilpatch. I've never been around much in the way of PhD people in physics, either, and couldn't tell you more than a sentence or two about string theory--which is obvious to THEM (I guess!).
SusieQ42: You be the brain surgeon; I'll stick to water hauling (or will, if I ever need to go back to work as such). I'm capable of carving a roast or a turkey, but cutting into some turkey's skull wouldn't be my strong suit.:)
Im a 59 year old rookie headed for the oil fields.What r my chances hehe
Depends entirely on you. That is, being a 59 year old rookie, you WON'T likely get hired ON any of the rigs--they really like kids starting out under the age of 25. But there are many service contractors that SUPPLY the rigs, and that's a different kettle of fish entirely.
Your best bet ALWAYS (once the flush of youth has hit the rear view mirror) is to become a driver. Get your CDL--we're seeing some guys in your age bracket who've gotten job offers with nothing but their CDL Learners Permits in hand.
Outside of that (if driving a truck is not your cup of tea), it's a matter of hit WorkForce (Job Service), network all over your chosen town, hammer on doors...and your chances are pretty good. Not absolutely guaranteed (only a CDL will do that), but pretty good nonetheless.
Not necessarily overnight. You might have to pound at for a few days or even a few weeks to find something that will work for you.
Becky Katz Level 8 Commenter 8 months ago
I am learning a lot from your oil boom hubs. I should be an unofficial expert. Hahaha