Posted on 10/07/2014 11:36:11 AM PDT by thackney
Carla Restivo, 61, is a drilling fluids technician working in Colorado for Sugar Land-based Hydro Resources. Oil and gas drillers pump lubricating liquid — known in the industry slang as “mud” — to their drill bits to help them move through layers of rock.
Fluids technicians like Restivo help monitor and manage the type of mud that’s used in different phases of drilling process.
Restivo started her career as a roughneck in 1976. That makes her relatively unique in the oil and gas industry, where, according to the American Petroleum Institute, fewer than 5 percent of blue collar jobs are held by women. She discussed with FuelFix her experience of frequently being the only woman on an oil rig.
I imagine things are different today. I started roughnecking in 1976. I haven’t worked in the industry steadily, since there’s a boom-and-bust aspect to it. Probably I’ve been 20 years in the industry. It’s strictly been in the drilling end of it. Not production or exploration.
That part might be a little bit more difficult for women to get into it because it’s fieldwork primarily. It’s a tough one for a lot of women. I’m single and never had kids. I started roughnecking, working with the guys, right on the rig — hammering, throwing chain, hauling 100-pound bags of material. I have to admit, it’s not something for the vast majority of women. I’m six feet tall, pretty stout. I can handle it.
To tell you the truth, if there’s any way a woman get herself on a rig — maybe working a shift, observing and learning the drilling process — that’s where it’s at. The industry terminology, the lingo, everything stems from that.
My friends in college said I should try roughnecking. They said it kind of half-joking. I think they said it as a dare. I’ve always been outdoorsy and didn’t like being in an office, and it paid really well, so I showed up at the job site one day, and that’s how it got going.
My first supervisor was pretty cool. We’re still friends. He treated me like anybody else. On my first day, he pointed me to a shovel and told me to start digging ditches around the drill site for drainage. And that’s what I did, all day long. They tell you what to do every minute of the day. They want to see if you can take orders and are willing to work — slowly but surely you’re doing the advanced stuff.
It was a good crew to get on, but they didn’t cut me much slack. I had to prove I could stay up with the guys and do it. They said I was going to be a detriment to their safety. But I proved to them I could do the work. It was something new for them having a woman there.
The funny thing is they don’t forget you’re a woman. They want to treat you as a woman. They try to be polite and discrete.
You learn rig psychology. That’s invaluable. If a woman ever wants to get into the field and learn to get along with the guys, that’s the way to go. You learn the hierarchy, the structure, how to talk to people. You, as a woman, don’t go in there and say ‘I’m a woman and you better change this for me,’ or ‘I’m a woman and you better watch the language.’ You won’t make it.
I started off roughnecking out of college but I could see that wasn’t a career path for a woman. So I went to technical school for two or three months. I started checking mud, and that’s primarily what I’ve been doing in the industry. They call you a mud engineer, but you’re really a drilling fluids technician. Once you work on a rig and see how everything works, it’s a natural progression, and that’s the next place to go. If you have a background in roughnecking, being a fluids technician is relatively easy work.
No other women in the company have my position. There are other female mud engineers, but they’re not real common. My managers and supervisors have been supportive. Mud engineers are a hot commodity if you have experience as a roughneck.
When I first started roughnecking, there were crusty guys out there. I could tell they didn’t think I belonged out there. But they didn’t say much because they could tell I was doing a good job, and I had a good, supportive supervisor who I’m sure warned them to leave me alone.
Nobody’s been outright hostile or mean to my face, but I’ve heard some things secondhand about how I don’t belong here. It doesn’t take them long to let them know that I know what I’m doing. You go out to the rig, walk around, talk to the driller and show you know your way around a rig.
The reactions are better now. It’s kind of sad to admit, but I’m considered an old-timer. The guys who work on the rigs are very young compared to what they used to be. I’ve seen a lot of things they don’t even know. The technology has changed so much, and their job isn’t nearly as hard as when I was doing it in the 1970s.
For women entering the industry, I would recommend finding some way to get out on a rig and hang around and watch these guys — learn the lingo and the drilling process. There’s so much more to learn than what’s in the book. Watch them move the rig. See the process. Once you can appreciate that, they’ll have a lot more respect for you.
Starting point, more education and she stayed with the rigs in a different capacity.
Back in the 80s I worked with a guy who was big and strong, in shape, worked out, ate right, all the healthy lifestyle stuff. One weekend he worked on a rig. He came in on Monday and said “Never again. It’s way too much for me. I spent half my time throwing up.”
My ex husband started out as a rough neck in the oil field. He was young but very strong. I guess he considered himself a man’s man (he could put a 2 penny nail through a board with his fist kinda guy). He told me that was the hardest work he had ever done. But, the money is good and you don’t spend it out on the rig. But, any woman that can handle that job I have to tip my hat to. It’s definitely not sissy work!
Back in the 80s I worked with a guy who was big and strong, in shape, worked out, ate right, all the healthy lifestyle stuff. One weekend he worked on a rig. He came in on Monday and said “Never again. It’s way too much for me. I spent half my time throwing up.”
If you’re inexperienced at any kind of physical activity, you work inefficiently and expend way more energy than necessary. If he had stuck with it, he would have figured it out in time and been fine.
She is an inconsistent feminist. She admits that men and women are different, wants to treated different from men blah blah blah blah. Sure she found a way to defy gender roles, and has earned her feminist infiltrator badge, but she is just another working to the destruction of a society.
Sounds like a very interesting lady. FWIW, most guys that I have worked with don’t have a problem with a lady who pulls or at least does her best to pull her own weight.
I worked for a bridge contractor for three summers while in college. I showed up every day, knew and understood the tools needed and the time required. A month in, the boss named me “time keeper” to keep track of who showed up and for how long. He gave me a raise of $.10/hour for this extra chore...
I worked on an off shore rig during the summer of 1977. By the end of the summer I promoted to the drill floor. It was without question the hardest physical work I have ever done. But the food was outstanding, and the sunrises and sunsets were incredible. I remember one of the lazy guys complaining to one of the supervisors that the rules required two people to be involved in lifting anything over 100 pounds. The supervisor looked at him and said, “The only thing on this rig that weighs less than 100 pounds is your dinner plate.” Then turned around and walked away. As hard as it was, I still look back on it as the best summer job I ever had.
Two quit after one hitch (10 on and 5 off) and the third one hung in for a month.
The last one to quit said he didn't go to college 4 years to work like that.
Said we were crazy.
That really made the rest of us "old hands" feel great about our career choice, LOLOL!
I worked road crew for a while in the late 70's and early 80's, right about when women were forcibly injected into that field of work. Working 6 10's a week with 2 hours travel, and 5 days a week was dedicated ditch digging, with one easy day a week, either running flag or the packer, such that everyone rotated through those easy jobs.
Of course, when they hired up the quota women, you can bet where those easy jobs went, so we all got pretty pissed about it, even if they were nice to look at.
But then there's Gert. I'm a big dude, 6'2 and 275 in prime shape. There wasn't many that could hold a candle to me, especially in pick and shovel type work, but some come close. Gert was one... Me and one other guy, and then Gert. She probably ran 180, smoked cigars, swore like a muleskinner, kicked a$$ and took names. She didn't say much, she was easy going, had nothing to prove, and she never once took the easy way. Tough, tough broad. She earned her respect on that crew, and there wasn't anyone there who didn't respect her - Though a few were scared of her.
A whole nuther thing from the flag ladies, and that's a fact.
I would guess significantly higher, for any significant duration of time.
One summer in college, I was a grunt on an electrical line crew, far easier than being a roughneck.
Best year of school (for grades) I ever had was after I learned what it was like to work for a living. 3 decades later, my shoulders start to ache just thinking about tamping in poles.
Once you get used to 24/7, it's a snap :)
Any woman who can handle a man who “could put a 2 penny nail through a board with his fist” I tip my hat to.
Thanks for the compliment but the operative word here is Ex husband. The boards weren’t the only thing he put his fist through. I began calling my house the “holey” house:-). Although, my hat does go off to his present wife!
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