subject: When Things Go Gassy At An Offshore Oil Platform: 3 Situations [print this page] As with all other industries, there are booms and busts in the oil drilling business, and no politician can spin his or her way out of this fact. When the price of Brent Crude hit the roof, a lot of big oil companies will go out of their way to find alternative sources. Difficult sites that would have been too expensive to operate on five years ago will turn into a (black) goldmine overnight.
This has happened many times before. Those of you who have lived in the state of New York for over a decade, for instance, might have spotted a surge in offshore platform construction in recent years.
*Wait, where is the oil again? While oil deposits do crop up in the most unlikely places - downtown LA has quite a few rigs tucked in the basement of apartment blocks - it's not oil, but gas that they're seeking out around Pennsylvania. At last count, there was more than a hundred trillion cu.ft. of proven reserves, as well as three times that in potential ones. Considering that the U.S. of A. currently pumps out a mere 30 trillion cu.ft. a year at a cost of 300 billion dollars, it's as viable as any business plan gets.
*So where does that leave me? You might want to buy some stocks. If you haven't quite reached that stage in life yet, don't fret. This opportunity is still wide open for you, since hundreds of drilling companies have been contracted to take on the wild northeast (if you will), and they will be hiring, come rain or come shine.
While there is naturally a world of difference between fluids and gases, you should note that natural gas tends to be produced along with oil anyways. The composition of the final product is seldom of concern for anyone atop the deck itself, so long as the operation runs safely, smoothly, and extracts everything you could possibly get out of a piece of rock. You can find out more about oil and gas wells at a later stage, i.e. on the job.
*So Long As It Burns: One last point: while many of us are very familiar with pumping gas, and as a result the value and price of oil, natural gas seems to be a bit obscure. The more erudite ones amongst you might point to power plants and district heating, but the most important use for natural gas has yet to be implemented in the States yet. Once pressurised and liquefied, it can actually be used to fuel automobiles, and taxicabs in many cities have already switched to LPG or biodiesel as a result of petroleum price spikes.
So get into this industry as soon as you can. You can't just look at the short-term trends and make up your mind on a lifelong career. It doesn't matter what you're trying to tap from the sea: que sara sara, as the old song goes.
