Posted on 07/10/2018 1:16:15 PM PDT by zeestephen
The energy sector had been shielded from pressure to innovate by high oil prices. When prices fell 75% over 20 months beginning in 2014, oil and gas companies were finally forced to modernize to squeeze out profits. Many found they could use new technologies to do the work better and cheaper, with fewer people.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Wall Street Journal:
“Oil prices are back up to their highest levels in more than three years. U.S. production has topped record levels, hitting 10.9 million barrels a day in the last week of June, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, compared with its high of 9.6 million in 2015. But as of May, nationwide oil and gas employment is down 21% since 2014...”
That’s the story in every industry except for hand-crafted items.
Eventually it will result in millions of unemployed voters who will gladly elect Socialists to loot the people who did this to them.
Disturbing, but you can see that coming.
The elites are trying to get ahead of that with the “guaranteed minimum income” that they’re talking about.
The way all these Cassandra's and Chicken Littles bleat makes you wonder why we are not all hunter gatherers in an cave sitting around a fire picking parasite off one another like monkeys.
Yeah just like all those employed in the buggy whip manufacturing industry affected a huge political groundswell when they lost their jobs because of the automobile.
Times change, jobs change, people adjust and retrain into different fields. My guess is 50% of jobs which existed in the 1940’s are gone, replaced by jobs no one could imagine back then.
You seem to believe technology advances are bad, they are not.
We’ve never had technology like AI and robots that could replace half the workforce before.
Those displaced workers will go somewhere. I am betting they will go into radical political movements.
Just make sure you own your own little robot workforce and you’ll be good.
In the mean time, a truck driver in west Texas can knock down $100-150K a year right now.
Maybe the robots will. Need ahuman to keep an eye on them.
As technology and efficiency increase, I’m willing to wager numerous jobs won’t be replaced by new jobs. It’s a legitimate concern to address.
If this is true, then why is the
Permian Basin in west Texas and
eastern New Mexico complaining
they can’t find enough workers?
Oil field employment has always
been an up and down cycle.
Fracking has actually increased
the need for workers. Truck drivers
are in huge demand.
It’s important to remember that the most difficult part of managing a business is finding, and retaining, reliable, hard working, honest, sober human beings who do not disrupt the lives of other employees, and who are not constantly searching for ways to sue you.
Whenever business owners and managers can economically replace a human worker with AI or a robot, that is EXACTLY what they are going to do!
AI and robotics have infinite potential for greater efficiency.
Human beings do not.
Bottom Line - a lot of Americans are going to need a “minimum income” by 2040.
Yawn.
If pipelines ever make economic sense, the oil companies will build them, and truck driver pay will come down very fast.
As to fracking costs, in 2013 the average well broke even around $60 a barrel.
Five years later, break even is probably below $40.
Only one way to do that - replace roughnecks with AI and with better drilling and pumping tools.
1.2 trillion bbl. oil recoverable from sands found in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, with a newly proven solvent technique (derived from citrous). No water required to liberate +99% of oil from sand. Clean sand made available for sale after process. Break-even, depending on source information, quoted at $28 to $32 per bbl. Virtually sulfur and heavy metals free, a direct refinery replacement for Venezuelan heavy crude. Should be some good paying jobs in there somewhere.
Almost 3,000,000 barrels per day
is nothing to sneeze at. I live
here...they’re screaming for
oilfield workers and truck drivers.
Got a CDL and you’re guaranteed
a job. Problem is, no one can
pass a drug test.
That is like handing out $100 dollar bills on the street corner.
“Weve never had technology like AI and robots that could replace half the workforce before.”
percentage-wise, the power loom and associated power textile machinery in the late 17th century and early 18th century eliminated more jobs than AI and robots ...
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