LEAD STORY
CAREER STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVING PANDEMICS &INDUSTRY CRASHES BY DR. STEVEN M. GOOLSBY
Loss of employment during oil industry crashes can be devastating, and the current industry downturn has been particularly bad due to the pandemic. I know this event has been rough for almost everyone in the industry, but it may have come as a shock for young professionals who are relatively new to their careers. I have seen several downturns in the industry, with some almost as severe. For example, in the mid-1980s, most of the exploration drilling in the Rocky Mountain Region was for natural gas. No major cold front hit the high-population east coast region before Christmas in 1985, which led the futures traders to decide there was enough natural gas in storage to last through the highuse cold months ahead. Natural gas prices crashed and the drilling rig count quickly followed. The wellsite geological supervision firm that my brother and I run turned down five jobs in December with 16 geologists in the field because we had everyone on a job and no one to send out. After the first of the new year we received no more wellsite jobs for over eight months. Talk about a shock! But we did survive.
OUTCROP | September 2020
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