Oil's New Technology Spells End of Boom for Roughnecks

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Oil’s New Technology Spells End of Boom for Roughnecks

One of the last industries where blue-collar laborers can earn high salaries is being transformed as artificial intelligence and automation replace workers

By Christopher M. Matthews
July 10, 2018 10:31 a.m. ET

After 20 years in the oil-and-gas industry, Eric Neece was used to its booms and busts. He wasn’t surprised when he was laid off by GE Oil & Gas in Conroe, Texas, in 2015 after oil prices plummeted. He figured his job would come back when prices crept back up.

He was almost right. The work came back. But Mr. Neece’s former job as a well logger—measuring well conditions thousands of feet underground—was gone. Those duties are increasingly being overseen remotely and handled by automation.

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Subscription required. The article starts on the front page below the fold in Wednesday's paper. it's a long article too. With a plummeting workforce, schools are closing, and towns are drying up.

[RainCaster]

1. Sarcastic boohoo

Solar is the future in every country but the US.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Oil patch roughnecks may also need to be data analysts

From two months ago:

MARKETPLACE TECH BLOGS

Oil patch roughnecks may also need to be data analysts

By Andy Uhler
May 16, 2018 | 6:32 AM

There’s a lot of talk about robots and automation taking over industries and putting people out of work. And that distinct possibility isn’t lost on folks working in the oil fields of West Texas, where technology advances are the key to maximizing efficiency and weathering the storm when oil prices inevitably fall.

In a mobile trailer next to a 100-foot oil rig in the heart of the Permian Basin oil patch, between Midland and Odessa, Texas, Pablo Talamantez pointed to a bright, blinking computer screen on his desk. ... "It gives you everything you need to know," Talamantez explained.

His computer gives him real-time updates on the rig’s penetration rate, pump speed and fluid rate. It took Talamantez’s boss, Tommy Taylor, some time to trust the new technology. He was used to a regular schedule of paper printouts, analog data that he and his crew could check and pass around. The new system has sensors connected to the oil rig and everyone can see it on their screens. ... Taylor said — pointing to Talamantez's computer — that engineers can now pull up information on their phones or laptops. “You can pull this up wherever you’re at.”

Drilling oil wells today still involves dirt and sweat, installing rigs in muddy fields. But there are also more jobs at desks, checking systems remotely by computer. That’s good because it’s hard enough to attract workers, and Midland’s labor market is tight. Technology makes the jobs an easier sell. ... “We will have to have these kind of things to get the workers to come out," Taylor said, referring to the new tech systems. "You want to work on a rig that, you know, you don't get your hands dirty and you run a lever? Or you want to get out here and use the tongs? Some of the guys, they don't want to do that.”
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[bigbrother05]

3. Yes, the technical jobs are increasingly automated or remotely controlled

The data created can be sent to an offsite location to be monitored/analyzed and one person can replace multiple folks that would previously been onsite at a single well.

The actual hands on work hasn't changed much, but the higher end tech folks are having to adapt or move on.

The title is misleading, roughnecks are still required onsite, it's other functions that are being impacted. It's the downturn in drilling that hits the manual skill positions.