Looks like they're finding energy everywhere and I wonder how this will continue to affect the profession of land surveying. I already know several surveyors who have gone to the Dakota and Pennsylvania gas fields and are making very respectable incomes just doing route surveys. With the lack of development and building we've seen in the last several years maybe this is the savior of our profession.
It's been happening for the last 3-4 years. It's catching on. The Marcelus and Utica shale plays offer many big opportunities in the next 8-10 years. After that...well...we'll just have to find another op for our talents.
if theres that much oil and gas and it floods the market, the jobs here may shrivel up and go away
> ...maybe this is the savior of our profession.
It's been going on at or near bubble levels, and by now we should all now what happens to economic bubbles. In the mean time it is providing a lot of work for surveyors.
A friend of mine offered a kind of scary scenario:
The new natural gas is very cheap. So cheap that many of the energy producers are switching over to use it. Once they have made the switch, boom go the prices.
Our home heating gas just went up for some reason, despite all this new, cheap gas. Hmmm
With new regulations on coal fired generating plants there is going to be a big shift to generating systems going to natural gas to replace them before fines start to kick in.
It's a factor.
A couple of years ago I was solicited for some of that work here in Ohio.
When I quoted my hourly rate, the line went dead.
I'm still getting my hourly rate every week but they are not getting me.
Don't get into that kind of an auction.