re: Opinions on Halliburton's PSL

Don't rush to get out of here.. I've been here for 2.5 years and someone would have to pay me a ton of money for me to leave.. the perks are great, the pay is decent, and the PTO is nice for my psl. I really like working the GoM, its slower paced than onshore which means our job it no quite as busy.

I told my boss. He said stop bullshitting me. Haha. Could be good, could be bad... I dunno. I do know that HAL has most of the market share in the gulf on the completion side.

For you guys that have/do work for Hal. How easy is it to switch PSLs within the company?

if it is truely a position you do not like, they will help you move.

The reason I am asking is bc I am getting really nervous that they either screwed something up and forgot to schedule me or that they are going to put in a hiring freeze. I already have an offer from a product line but it isnt in something I want to do. Was thinking of possible getting in with them and then switching.

I didn't take any petroleum classes at LSU so I really don't know how that is exactly!
The program at Penn State used to be a lot better it it's going down hill now because they opened up the program to a lot more people which affected recruitment big time! Plus the Marcellus was slow for some time!
But overall it's great and there are about 3 very demanding course which are well testing, reservoir simulation and production engineering design

The second interview I am waiting for was through the interviews they did at school. The guy who interviewed me directly there liked me and got me an interview with his boss and he offered me. It was for there seismic division in wireline. I have a couple other offers from other companies but the only one I am really interested in is Completions with SLB. I am holding out hope about getting on with Sperry bc drilling is what I am interested in most.

Each PSL is different. Completions is blowing up and breaking records so they are going to be hiring a lot. Other PSLs are probably dragging their feet because they aren't making money.

Completions is easier than PE from a lifestyle perspective. But in only a few years i made a pretty good little career for myself without having to go offshore all the time. Halliburton's going to have completions from top to bottom in the gulf if they buy Baker.

SLB has like two guys who run screens for them and they do safety valves and a few random other things. That's it. They sent their boats out of the gulf years ago. I know two guys who left SLB to go red recently and they said its getting scarce there. Hal has like 70% of completion work in the gulf. Everyone else splits the 30%. Halliburton definitely lacks safety valve work in deep water. If they get Baker, they'll get that market back along with some other valve and production packer work that they don't have. When you can sell a customer almost everything in the well, you can squeeze out SLB.

SLB is much bigger world wide. But not in completions in the gulf.

I've moved on, but know the ropes. When i went through, it took about a year to a year and a half to break out. During that time, you don't know your schedule. I lived in New Iberia for 3 months, Mississippi for 3 months, and was going on jobs here or there. Had plans ruined a few times. Once you break out, it's office work and shop work. Whereas PE is always going to be out on the boat even after they break out. They have an easier road to working for an operator though.

The whole point of completions is to evaluate the formation, and choose a plan to optimize the production. PE learns more about what the formation requires (fracking and such). Completions comes up with the tools that allow PE to treat the formation.