Information Discussion for Gate Guards

[mdbass]

Thought I'd start a new topic for Gate Guards to use for comments. Like the moderator suggested-keep technical stuff, recipes, mechanical, etc. where they belong. Lets hear from everyone sucking down that caliche dust.

[Don_Shar]

I went to town and pumped gas into my Jeep at $1.79 and I thought "man I like this" then I get back to our gate we are working
and it is a little sad to see all these workers leaving because they lost their job. I don't just mean the oil workers it filters down to the service men, rental companies that supply lights, tanks, even the port-a-pots. I talked to one today that was on his way back to Mississippi, left his family at home came to Texas for the good pay...just bought a new home for his family in Mississippi, now don't know where he will get a job paying enough to make payments on their house. One man told me his company just laid off 32 people. I was talking to another gate guard that works for a different company and he was told to go home there are no gates or very few gates to be had.

[The_Texan]

Sent another Don

[Don_Shar]

The Texan wrote:

Don/Shar wrote:
Update
Our service man was here today and he told me all the lots are full and there are several people wanting gates sitting in Rv Parks all around, talk about hard times a falling.

Check your PM box.....

I checked...no new PM since 6-28-2014. What is up.

[The_Texan]

Don/Shar wrote:
Update
Our service man was here today and he told me all the lots are full and there are several people wanting gates sitting in Rv Parks all around, talk about hard times a falling.

Check your PM box.....

[Don_Shar]

Update
Our service man was here today and he told me all the lots are full and there are several people wanting gates sitting in Rv Parks all around, talk about hard times a falling.

[Don_Shar]

We have been working gates in south Texas for 3 years, we sat on gates for up to 14 months. We are on a gate now and when the company left today he said they was through in south Texas moving to Louisiana. Another company in our area had 5 wells to drill, finished 1 and layed the rig down and back to the yard. The gate guard companies all have full yards of people waiting to get a gate. When our gate is closed we don't know if we will get another gate and we planned to be here till Oct 2015(may leave early)
If anyone was planning to come to gate guard this year you may want to rethink, gates are going to hard to get.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

4X4Dodger wrote:
Why is it they are so critical in Texas and not in ND??? What is the pay?

The land owners require the oil companies to keep their fence structure intact, and to keep track of who comes and goes on the property, and ensure non-authorized people are not given free access to the property.

That's a pretty standard part of any drilling lease in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma.

All this drilling is occurring on privately owned land, not owned by the big oil companies or other large corporations.

Pay - Between $90 to $200 per day. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The average is probably closer to $130-150. Gate guards typically work in a day/ night shift with one of the couple doing nights, one doing days.

Some times it is very slow, and some times you can see several hundred trucks/ vehicles come in during a shift.

[The_Texan]

The reason for them in Texas is that 99% of the wells and other infrastructure is on private lands, mostly ranches. Ranches have cattle, hunting leases, and other things that have a tendency to wander off if the gate is left open and believe me, NO rig rat or sales critter would bother to stop and close the gate they opened, so the ranchers have the requirements for a 24/7/365 GG written into the lease contract. Also, for certain types of energy operations, the Texas RR Commission requires there be a guard on site 24/7.

The pay varies by company and location. The base is $135/day and the company furnishes full hookups at the site. The highest I have seen is $200/day for a single pad on site and that is for seasoned GGs with just a couple of companies. I have seen it as high as $700/day for an extremely busy site with approximately 10 active pads, but those type gates are few and far between. Almost all of the companies are back to paying by 1099's for Independent Contract work instead of a W-2 as an employee. The actual work can also vary widely, from 2 or 3 vehicles a day all the way to 500+ vehicles a day.

There are a couple of locations in ND that have GGs, but they are the exception. Also there are many locations in CO, NM, MS and LA that are now requiring them by contract.

[4X4Dodger]

Up here in North Dakota I dont think there are any Gate Guards not even at some of the larger storage facilities and train loading loops. I have never seen one at a working oil well. in fact most of the wells are not even fenced...thus not Gate to guard.

Why is it they are so critical in Texas and not in ND??? What is the pay?

At this point with 123 + pages of posts it just isnt feasible to try to read them for info. Maybe the first 100 pages should be archived? and start over?

[The_Texan]

Well, as to be expected, with the price of oil in a downward spiral, the business is slowing down. Gate Guard jobs this year will be very hard to come by. Many folks had already changed from winter Texan to full time GGs and even those are finding it hard to acquire a gate once their current gate closes. Folks, don't plan on getting a gate within a week or two like you used to. I know of folks waiting over a month to six weeks that are full time gate guards and the companies will place them before any Winter Texan or newcomer.

[mountainsam]

I worked in the oil fields for 18 years in the 70's and 80's. We never had gates to guard. I know things change over the years. Are most of these jobs dry camping or do they provide hook ups? I'll check out Andy's Forum. Thanks all for this great information. Sounds like something to help keep me young.

[The_Texan]

The best forum to find info about the job is Andy's forum. There is a wealth of info there about the job from A to Z, just requires a little reading.

[roadtoadflorida]

How do we find out about Gate Guard Jobs? Is there a web site? Being retired I'd like to look into it. Thank You.
RT

[The_Texan]

Anyone interested in working for the company we work for in south Texas, please send me a PM with your phone number and I will call you. The company is looking to fill several types of gates, but in particular, they have a couple that are restricted to 1) NO smoking & 2) NO pets. If you are a non smoker and do not have pets, or even if you do not fit that bill, we do have other gates, so please contact me and I will give you a preliminary interview and then go from there. This is one of the premier companies in this business and they require workers, not wannabe gate guards, but in return they stand up for their employees. Many of their employees are loooong(decades working for them) term employees.

[Mfar1234]

how about single gates?