Employers have a love-hate relationship with workers’ compensation insurance. Although the program protects business owners from lawsuits resulting from workplace injuries, the required premiums continue to threaten profits.

 

After the largest retooling effort in 25 years, the well servicing industry enters 2008 still hungry for newbuild rigs. The trend seems to be evolving from adding rigs for incremental fleet expansion to replacing worn and tired equipment. “The fleet that is out there is more than 50 percent absolutely worn out,” notes Darrell Dillard, chief executive officer for Eagle Manufacturing in Odessa, Texas.

Although our industry showed a slight activity slowdown toward the end of 2007, the issues we dealt with were the same as those of recent years.

You’re driving to work at a wellsite early on a summer morning. Even from a few miles away, you notice a thick, black cloud of smoke rising to the sky. As you approach the site, the smoke intensifies, and you start to sense there is a fire at the well you are drilling or servicing or making a delivery to. Fire! Maybe a blowout! Nothing is more dangerous at a wellsite location.

 

America is known as the land of opportunity, but when your last address was prison, a halfway house, a recovery program or some dark and grimy corner, getting a second chance in life can be one of the hardest things in the world to come by. Larry Keast recognized that and reacted with insight and perception that make him exceptional among U.S. corporate owners.

That was the first thing I heard when I got into the office. One glance at the screen confirmed it. During trading on the morning of March 11, oil reached a high of $109.72 a barrel. But let's be honest, are we really surprised to see the triple digit record this morning? I hope not. Usually, I can't help getting excited whenever oil prices break into new territory. Yet when I heard the news, I simply shrugged. Something felt different this morning. You see, now that oil prices are holding over $100 a barrel, I keep hearing that cheap oil is gone forever. Personally, I think oil is still cheap.

 

Most, if not all, well servicing rigs have one or two floor-mounted overhead auxiliary hoist systems located on or near the work platform. The floor hoist consists of a winch, sheave or block in the derrick, and an end termination on the tail of the wire rope to attach various rigging for material handling. Rigging equipment for material handling can include wire rope slings, synthetic slings, alloy lifting chain and the like.

Motor oil could very well be the Rodney Dangerfield of petroleum. It gets no respect. While many people often whine about the cost of crude oil, natural gas and other petroleum products like gasoline, fuel oil and even propane, few complain about motor oil. And complaining about a petroleum product may be a way of expressing its importance. That doesn’t mean motor oil isn’t valuable. Without fuel, motor vehicles won’t run. Without lube oil greasing up the parts, engines and many other kinds of mechanical equipment will cease working too.