Irishman can you please clarify how many days do you work per shift and how much you earn as a leasehand (or roughneck or floorhand)?

I know you made 4000 dollars in 10 days (7k including the extra time) but i want to know how much would i earn if i decide to do this for a long time.

(01-18-2013 04:43 AM)pitt Wrote:  Irishman can you please clarify how many days do you work per shift and how much you earn as a leasehand (or roughneck or floorhand)?

I know you made 4000 dollars in 10 days (7k including the extra time) but i want to know how much would i earn if i decide to do this for a long time.

The rates above are as an MWD.

My leasehand rates were 29.50 an hour starting. Everything over 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week was paid at an overtime rate. Overtime is 1.5 times basic.

So a standard rotation is 14 days at 12 hours a day.

(I only worked 7 since during my first rotation- just the way it worked out)

14 days x 12 hours = 168 hours worked total

88 at basic ( 2 weeks off 44 ) = 2,596

80 at overtime (168 total -88 basic hours )= 3,540

Total =6,136 for two weeks


Lets say you worked 3 months so 15 weeks roughly.

That would be 5 rotations and 5 weeks off:

30,680 before tax.

And 5 weeks off in between to spend it on women, drink and fancy suits



If you had 3 months off for spring break up and were busy for the other 9 months you would make 80-90k and have around 28 weeks off every year to do whatver you like.

Keep in mind that within a year you would probably have moved up to motorhand and would make an extra 5-10 dollars an hour more basic.

Plus you would be in great shape and well on the way to becoming a driller and beyond.

Wow, thanks for the write-up, sounds exciting...

Is a driller at all similar to MWD or how much hard work does drilling involve?

Hi i have been reading this post for the last month!At the moment i am in Portugal just waitting for my immigrant visa(my wife is canadian) to go to Toronto where i have lots of family,but my intention is to try work at fort mc murray as an excavator operator!I have a few years of experience in Portugal!I want to take my drivers licence in toronto and find a heavy machinery course then find the best way/time to move to fort mac!At the time i am half the post and learning a lot with you(i am reading till the end)!!I am 34(35 next 28 Jan)but i feel healthy,motivated and i am very responsible to do any kind of job!!Thanks for the good information and sorry about my writing(i can read ans speak better than writting but i am learning and studing)!!

By the way if there`s any other portuguese or can speak portuguese in the forum i will be glad to know!!!Thanks a lot!!

(01-18-2013 10:32 AM)Tresdus Wrote:  Wow, thanks for the write-up, sounds exciting...

Is a driller at all similar to MWD or how much hard work does drilling involve?

So from an operational stand point drilling is divided into two main groups:
the drilling crew and the engineers.

The drilling crew works on the actual rig and do all the physical manual work of putting pipe together, drilling it down and keeping the rig running.

The engineers don't work on the rig (or very little). 95% of their time is spent in separate shacks onsite about 100-200 meters from the rig. They study mud samples, project the course of the pipe underground, watch the computers and make reports. They do very little physical work and have it pretty handy. One downside is that they have a lot more responsibility if things go wrong.

The drilling floor works on a hierarchy system:

Leasehand to floorhand to roughneck to motormand to derrickman to driller.


The engineers work on a more even playing field. They consist of the directional driller, MWD and geologist. Most rigs will have 2 of both. One for the day shift and one for the night.

Above all these guys you have the company man, toolpush and rig supervisor. They are in charge of everyone and make all the big decisions.


So to answer your question a driller is a physical job that requires a lot of experience on the rig floor. It is also a very technical job and teaches people skills that if they wanted could be used to job over to being an MWD and then after a few more years a Direction Driller.

An MWD on the other hand is a very technical job requiring no real rig experience but an aptitude for technical work: engineering, science, maths etc. Although any rig experience is an asset.

To become a driller takes 2-5 years in the rigs and once in the position you are in charge of the drilling crew. You work 12 hours shift and have to, on top of running the rig floor, make sure to delegate to your rig crew all the necessary jobs that keep a rig running. So with the right mindset and persistence it is possible for anyone to become a driller.

My brothers friend's dad is the president of a camp service company in Alberta. They hire all the cooks, janitors etc for camps. If all goes well I'll be goin out there in about 2 months. My plan is to get in doing one of those shitty camp jobs and talk to people and try and find a trade and do an apprenticeship. I was thinking welding or Ironworking. any ideas on some good trades?

(01-20-2013 03:00 AM)Jay_Bird Wrote:  My brothers friend's dad is the president of a camp service company in Alberta. They hire all the cooks, janitors etc for camps. If all goes well I'll be goin out there in about 2 months. My plan is to get in doing one of those shitty camp jobs and talk to people and try and find a trade and do an apprenticeship. I was thinking welding or Ironworking. any ideas on some good trades?

Heavy Duty Mechanic, Electrician, Carpenter, Pipefitter are a few of the top of my head.

Hey JayBird, I've been reading this forum for awhile now & I am a Union Ironworker from the US. I've been in the process of getting up that way to work. If your thinking of getting into a trade, I'm sure most are good paying jobs with good benefits, but since u mentioned Ironworking, I think that's great. I hear they are in dire need of skilled tradesmen, that's why I'm getting my ducks in a row so to speak. Call the International, ask about joining the apprenticeship, they are almost always looking for new members. You already being there makes it that much easier. Good luck.

It's been a while i haven't looked at the forum since i was busy lately preparing my trip to Edmonton

so i quit my job this week and i'm moving to Edmonton on Jan 31st! made a reservation at the youth hostel for a week and i'll go from there
@Jay_bird: you have to contact unions directly , fax them your resume and they'll call you for the written exam
and the trades mentioned by Damedius are all good

btw if anyone is in Edmonton now or making the move on February ,i'm planing on organizing a trip to Fortmc if anybody is interested in meeting , drive to Fortmc etc

(01-20-2013 07:29 PM)Habsguy Wrote:  It's been a while i haven't looked at the forum since i was busy lately preparing my trip to Edmonton

so i quit my job this week and i'm moving to Edmonton on Jan 31st! made a reservation at the youth hostel for a week and i'll go from there
@Jay_bird: you have to contact unions directly , fax them your resume and they'll call you for the written exam
and the trades mentioned by Damedius are all good

btw if anyone is in Edmonton now or making the move on February ,i'm planing on organizing a trip to Fortmc if anybody is interested in meeting , drive to Fortmc etc

habsguy how specifically do you start an apprenticeship program in canada? a company wont just hire me out of the blue with no experience.how do the apprenticeships work?

alecks you wont be able to man unless you are are a permanent residence and i see from your profile your from Ireland too. so sadly there are not many options available. i have 5 years done in Ireland and i cant even get that experience counted. what trade was it your hoping to get into? i hate to be the one giving you the bad news but its better you find out sooner rather then later.

(01-23-2013 11:29 AM)salmonfella Wrote:  alecks you wont be able to man unless you are are a permanent residence and i see from your profile your from Ireland too. so sadly there are not many options available. i have 5 years done in Ireland and i cant even get that experience counted. what trade was it your hoping to get into? i hate to be the one giving you the bad news but its better you find out sooner rather then later.

Although it sucks that you can't do an apprenticeship until you're a permanent resident, its not the end of the world, there's plenty of jobs out there that don't require apprenticeships: rigs, truck driver, heavy equipment safety, etc.

Hell, I've never been an apprentice and I'm doing alright, been in Asia for three months and won't be going back to work for at least another two!

Don't sweat it man, get you ass over to Alberta and things will work out.

Yea thats true i leave Ireland for Calgary end of march i cannot wait

(01-23-2013 11:29 AM)salmonfella Wrote:  alecks you wont be able to man unless you are are a permanent residence and i see from your profile your from Ireland too. so sadly there are not many options available. i have 5 years done in Ireland and i cant even get that experience counted. what trade was it your hoping to get into? i hate to be the one giving you the bad news but its better you find out sooner rather then later.

Go to your chosen Union Hall tell them you wan't to join the Union and mention nothing of your Visa until asked.
If they ask about your Visa say it's a two year work permit and that you will be upgrading to permanent residency after one year.
The people in the Union office most likely won't have a clue of the intricacies of the Visa system.
Everything in Canada works better Face to Face.

Yea mate i rang the union from Ireland where i am based at the minute and it seemed positive then they got in touch with Alberta industry training and that's where they brought up the residency thing. but thanks for the heads up i will try it when i get over in a few weeks.

http://www.sait.ca/international-student...nginCanada

I'm taking a 15 week course at SAIT and it says I'm not eligible to work after graduation. Can anyone tell me if that is true? (At "Working after graduation")

it is probably because you are not a permanent resident?

Yes, I'm from Germany.
But that would mean taking that course at SAIT is without purpose because I wouldn't be able to work afterwards if the website is right and I can't work after graduation.

yea the college would have no problem letting you doing the course and i am sure taking your money. but they would have nothing to do with the jobs after i would look into it more to get an official answer it would be shame to waste money and weeks studying on a course and not be to do the job after because you are now a permanent resident. so if you you are not eligible to to work after i would not bother to take the course.

This thread brings up some recent relevant news in the US.

Apparently they approved a pipeline to be built to run through Nebraska from Canada. But there is a lot of protest right now.

Apparently there is a huge amount of CO2 released from the production of crude oil from the sands. Some in the US are even trying to say its not as good quality as drilled oil. But that may just be their scare tactic.

The WSJ had an article that some Oil Companies are holding off funding further projects in the Sands until further evaluation. Obama right now wants a conclusive environmental study before he approves the pipeline from Canada.

Do you think this news affects the future of the Oil Sands? or is this more political news by the media to cause a bit of a stir?

(01-26-2013 09:52 AM)pros80 Wrote:  This thread brings up some recent relevant news in the US.

Apparently they approved a pipeline to be built to run through Nebraska from Canada. But there is a lot of protest right now.

Apparently there is a huge amount of CO2 released from the production of crude oil from the sands. Some in the US are even trying to say its not as good quality as drilled oil. But that may just be their scare tactic.

The WSJ had an article that some Oil Companies are holding off funding further projects in the Sands until further evaluation. Obama right now wants a conclusive environmental study before he approves the pipeline from Canada.

Do you think this news affects the future of the Oil Sands? or is this more political news by the media to cause a bit of a stir?

This controversy is old news, I'll elaborate more on it later, actually I think I've already touched this topic in this thread but anyway, if you Americans don't want to buy oil from your best friends up in Canada and prefer to buy it from the arsehole nations in the middle east such as Saudi Arabia and other amicable OPEC nations like Venezuela, fill your boots. We'll send our oil to China to India where they don't play petty politics and have to placate idiotic environmental voters.

Of course there's more to it than that, a lot of it borders on conspiracy theories, but like I say, I'll write more about it later.

If you're interested in the subject I recommend Ezra Levant's book "Ethical Oil".

(01-25-2013 09:37 AM)Tresdus Wrote:  Yes, I'm from Germany.
But that would mean taking that course at SAIT is without purpose because I wouldn't be able to work afterwards if the website is right and I can't work after graduation.

Probably depends on what course you are taking.

For instance if you took Power Engineering at SAIT and got good grades, you would have no problem finding a company willing to help you obtain a work permit.

Pros80, you wrote me a PM but you're not able to receive PMs, so I just copied your question and my reply here on the thread instead. There was another guy who PM'd me but I emptied my inbox so lost the message which is why I haven't gotten back to you so if you want, send me another PM.

I've enjoyed reading your insight about the Oil Sands. I'm an American who plans on getting a place in Edmonton in March and then going to the Sand to try and get a job.

Do you recommend staying in Edmonton and then going to Fort Mac and pounding the pavement to see what jobs I can get?

Since I'm American there are some NAFTA agreements that can allow someone to get a temp work permit. Have you seen other Americans show up and just look for work?

I would prefer Fort Mac to heading to North Dakota. Let me know if you have any tips. Thanks for the info.


Hey man your biggest hurdle will be paperwork and visas, any American that I've met was brought into Canada on a special work permit already arranged by a company, never met one who just showed up to work. All of those had a special skill, trade or education work experience such as engineer or technician before they came up.

I would suggest living in Edmonton if you want to do fly in/out work but Fort Mac is better if you want to be "home" every night.

Good luck

(01-26-2013 10:46 AM)Damedius Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 09:37 AM)Tresdus Wrote:  Yes, I'm from Germany.
But that would mean taking that course at SAIT is without purpose because I wouldn't be able to work afterwards if the website is right and I can't work after graduation.

Probably depends on what course you are taking.

For instance if you took Power Engineering at SAIT and got good grades, you would have no problem finding a company willing to help you obtain a work permit.

You HAVE to be a permanent resident to even take power engineering course