Oil companies are shifting their approach to the future from politically fractured places to places where oil comes out of rock, only when it is fractured.
In many cases, that’s the good old America. This change is not a drop in the bucket for oil, it is more like a revolution in the oil industry. Why? Because the US is likely to be the world’s largest oil and gas producing nation by 2020, if PFC Energy, a Washington DC-based consulting firm, is right. That means a lot more pipe welders will be working in America, from now on.
Political risk in other countries is part of this new oil landscape, and political and economic winds in the US could cause more than a boom, soon.
Shell Oil, for example, says it would rather face the technical and environmental challenges of complicated new drilling methods like shale fracturing and super deepwater drilling in the US and other politically safe countries, rather than take the risks of operating in less than … stable or hostile countries, where it is relatively easy to extract oil and natural gas from the ground.
At the same time, public and political attitudes about US oil and natural gas production could be shifting toward more aggressive development of US resources. Because Americans are getting weary of prices and or- I of gas and a less than robust economy. Producing oil and natural gas from home reserves can help both. Canada has enjoyed a less stressed economy as the United States struggles. This is largely because Canada is producing oil from a new technology that allows it to source oil from Alberta’s tar sands.
The EPA has approved a huge pipeline, from the oil sands of Canada to the refineries of Texas. Although it may be delayed for political reasons, it will most likely start soon and will employ thousands of pipe welders.
It’s no secret that skills that are hard to learn and in high demand require more money, regardless of the industry being discussed..
Welding is no exception to this rule. However, the most common welding skills don’t pay anywhere near what pipe welders can do. They can make $ 100,000 a year or more in places like North Dakota, where overall unemployment is below 4%, due to shale oil production.
6G is the designation given to a pipe welding position in which the test joint is set at a 45 degree angle, and the welder must weld the joint without moving the pipe. The test is this way because the fixed angle makes the welder have to weld in almost every possible position. When a welder can complete the weld test so that the weld passes a destructive bend test performed by a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), the welder can weld pipe.
Although the average welder does not have the required skill to weld pipe, almost anyone motivated enough to gain the 6G skill can do so, whether it is by attending pipe welding school or by teaching themselves, with enough practice of the right kind.
22 catches? You cannot weld pipes unless you have experience, and you cannot gain experience without welding pipes.
How do you do it? The newly certified 6G welder will need to assist and observe an experienced pipe welder for weeks or months before he is given the opportunity to weld pipe as a pipe welder. During this time, the new 6G welder will be able to weld occasionally, while being watched by an experienced pipe welder.
What should you do next?
