Sunday, September 30, 2012

Winter Gate Guarding

I am loathe to pass on rumors or gossip. However, you folks contemplating coming south for a gate guard position should make sure you have a position secured. This applies anytime, but especially this year. The election year has the exploration companies in a wait and see mode. Natural gas is being burned off due to lack of storage space and LOW prices. Deer and other hunts are also about to start. (A lot of land owners make more money off of guided hunts than from oil royalties).A trend has also emerged where gate guards are omitted from the contracts between the land owners and the exploration companies.The thought being that money can be saved up to and until a land owner demands guards. I guess all the legalese has to be worked out about that. Additionally we have witnessed several fracking companies using their own personnel for gate guards. Our field superintendent has said that any lag time between events on a lease will result in the guards being released. For example, they won't be leaving us on the gate in between drilling and fracking or fracking to completion. Right now, things are in a very SLOW mode and we have guards parked and waiting. Make sure you have a place to wait, if it becomes necessary, along with the funds to do so. We have experienced "log jams" down here before. This is just a word to the wise!

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