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The energy boom, welding, and the modern-day cowboy

Every day, when Jim Mosman commutes over the flatlands of western Texas, he passes by numerous RV parks and sees at least several dozen welders driving their trucks to the job site, be it for rig jobs or pipeline work. The associate professor of welding technology at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas, lives and teaches in the heart of North America’s largest oil field, and second-largest in the word.

It’s the Permian Basin, a world of hydraulic fracturing, plentiful welding work, and record low unemployment. Odessa and nearby Midland, Texas, enjoy some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. RV parks are full of transient workers, some making well into the six figures.

“The guys here running the rigs are doing exceptionally well,” Mosman said. “There’s more work than they can handle.”

For welders, the energy boom around Odessa provides two starkly different opportunities: as an employee of a fabricator, or as an independent contractor working on the pipelines—or as Mosman calls them, “the modern-day cowboys.” Cowboy work pays more but isn’t as steady and, of course, can be rough for those with families. But then again, six-figure pay is hard to resist.

Yes, oil prices are falling. Yes, people are questioning how long the energy boom will really last. But Mosman still sees steady demand throughout the next few years. “When I started 17 years ago, in a normal semester I would have between 50 and 60 students. In the fall semester, I had 230 enrolled.” And even this, he added, isn’t enough to keep up with all the local demand.

In the energy business, welders join both in the physical and metaphorical sense. They are the mortar that holds the energy boom together. Prices may fall, and the boom may subside a little, but the demand for welders—the industrial cowboys of the modern age—probably won’t be going away anytime soon.

About the Author
The Fabricator

Tim Heston

Senior Editor

2135 Point Blvd

Elgin, IL 60123

815-381-1314

Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.