Any Oil and Gas Casualties so far?

[JackMats]

Apparently I'm being demobbed from my project at the end of the month and will have to go back to the UK. I thought this project would see me through 2016 so I'm a bit disappointed. To top it all off my line manager has told me I will be under consultation when I get back with a view to being made redundant. Has anybody here been made redundant from an O&G job, or fear they may be soon? What will you do?

 

[zdas04]

My son was laid off from a Pumper job last week. He is thinking that he's going to look for an industry that is less boom/bust. A bunch of engineers I know were laid off in Australia over the last few months. Most have found comparable work, but several had to leave the country to find it.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[EmmanuelTop]

Almost a half of Chemical Engineers I know had their contracts terminated during 2015. Many of them are still without job, even if they were/are willing to go abroad. It is simply a bad time for Oil and Gas (particularly Upstream). One friend has moved from O&G to automotive industry, and she says the job sucks. No thrill, no calculations, no creativity - for her at least.

Times are a bit better in Refining and Petrochemicals (and Downstream in general) but this mostly applies to small independent producers. For integrated majors, the situation is basically the same.

I don't know what I would do if I were in your place, but sitting and waiting for the storm to pass does not sound like a viable solution, because it may last for quite a while. Looking for alternative industries and getting some qualifications during your idle time might be the best option.

I said to my wife I don't mind selling hamburgers, as long as the job is an honest job - if the same Oil storm hits me at the end. At least I can throw some mayonnaise and ketchup in the face of those who annoy me, which I couldn't do with project managers or supervisors. In Oil & Gas industry you never find mayo and ketchup when you need them.


Dejan IVANOVIC
Process Engineer, MSChE

 

[macmet]

Not Oil & Gas, but my previous company in the power industry had many layoffs late last year. Many also left on their own and were not replaced.

 

[Panther140]

I wonder if buying cheap stocks in oil would be a good move.. I highly doubt the market will be down like this forever, but I can't predict who is going to rebound.

"Formal education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." ~ Joseph Stalin

 

[IRstuff]

Boom/bust is all very relative. When I worked at Fairchild in the 1980s, who was owned by Schlumberger at the time, Schlumberger went and dumped a bunch of so-called EEs from their oil exploration group because of market fluctuation, but we then went through a similar thing where engineers were trying to take jobs from cabbies. The bottom line is that there are few industries that are recession-proof.

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //

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[MacGyverS2000]

The mortuary business is certainly one... the whole "people dying to get in" and all of that...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[IRstuff]

But, even there, there's at least a 10x price difference between cremation in a cardboard box vs. deluxe hermetically sealed solid metal casket with the bells&whistles memorial and paid mourners. When times are tough, the cremation looks pretty attractive, making it harder for the mortuary to support its staff in totality.

TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //

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[zdas04]

Oil stocks are rarely a good idea, the ROCE in the industry is so low that it is listed by Forbes as 112th most profitable (way after the mortuary business). I bought 100 shares of Amoco stock in 1990 for $3000 ($5440 in 2015 dollars) and had my broker buy more stock with dividends. I sold all 170 shares last year for $4600. That works out to less than 1% APR in current dollars and 15% loss in constant 2015 dollars. There were a number of times over the nearly 30 years that I could have sold them for a profit, but I kept thinking that they were going to get better. I own several second-tier oil stocks I'm waiting for a time that they are worth more than I paid for them (all were purchased during market dips, just not big enough dips to account for oil prices dropping by 70%).

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[JedClampett]

I got a resume yesterday from an oil and gas engineer who was laid off.
Not a big trend, but........

 

[allgoodnamestaken]

I live in Alberta (Canada) and unfortunately had to transition to transportation, but fortunately am still gainfully employed making a decent living for an inexperienced grad.

We had a competition for a non-technical engineering position at work and got ~80 resumes of O&G engineers with phds and other advanced degrees who were obviously just looking for anything.

 

[controlsdude]

Big banks brace for oil loans to implode

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/18/inv...-banks-jpmorgan/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-dom

 

[controlsdude]

Is it time to bail out the U.S. oil industry?

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/14/investing/oil-bailout-us-washington/index.html?iid=EL

 

[EmmanuelTop]

In one form or another, banking cartels are going to take money away from people. "The rich to get richer" - where did I hear that before?

Dejan IVANOVIC
Process Engineer, MSChE

 

[ScottyUK]

We're in the North Sea area and we've not had any staff losses (yet) but it's not so rosy for the contractor workforce.

This is my first ride through a big dip on the O&G rollercoaster - I think I preferred the relative stability of the power generation industry!

 

[zdas04]

Controlsdude,
There is never a good time to bail out any industry, let alone Oil & Gas. It would be nice if the EPA, MMS, and BLM would all schedule a team building outing on the Titanic, but relaxing the worst of the burdonsome regulation would be enough without any bailout.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[JackMats]

ScottyUK wish I could say the same for our company, we've got a lot of contractors still kicking about and we've been through two rounds of redundancy

 

[Pmatherne]

I was laid off in April of last year when the downturn was still just beginning

Future PE Engineer
Pet project I am working on to help other engineers, not much yet hoping to get it grow as I learn more

http://www.peexamquestions.com

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I feel sympathy for anyone that jumped into the industry just before the crash but everyone else should have saved up enough to ride out a two year slump. Who wasn't aware how hard the industry cycles?

 

[andriver]

I am a Texas man, 99% of my friends and schoolmates went into the O&G industry in some way.

I build the Offshore Rigs, we went from turning down work with a backlog of 6+ years to, crap we only have enough work through 2016. I have seen our craft go from 4,000 to 1,000 and staff from 500 to 300.

Many of my friends are ME's working for the oil field service companies (Shlumberger, Baker Hughes, Haliburton). They have taken the hardest hit, and I have seen several friends lose their jobs and transition to a much lower paying job. Interestingly enough, I had turned down a job offer from one of these companies just 2 years ago, they were offering 26% above what I was making but I wanted to be able to do design work.

I have friends that are exploration geologists, or just good ole fashioned roughnecks that have lost their jobs.

Sad thing is, it will get worse before it gets better.