As Dianna Wray writes for the Victoria Advocate, the life of an oilfield worker is bittersweet. When times are good – and times certainly are good right now in the Eagle Ford Shale – oil and gas workers can make around $100,000 per year.
But, on the other hand, booms can take their toll on workers, from strained marriages to injuries and deaths. Wray describes the ways in which workers can get injured: flying debris, moving equipment and well blowouts. But Wray leaves out another major way that oil and gas workers get hurt: in truck accidents going to and from the Eagle Ford Shale.
Despite the danger of working in the oil and gas industry, these workers are finding the pull of an oil boom irresistible. “When you start a boom,” said oilfield worker Justin Glass, as Wray reports, “you don’t realize how good it is until it goes bust, and then the high rolling goes away and you know what you’ve lost. Yeah, it’s like they say, you don’t know what you love until you lose it.”
But Justin Glass’s father said, “It’s unlike any boom I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing.”
Source: The Play: Oil-field workers shoot for success during boom times