How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
(OP)
I was laid off from a tier one automotive supplier early last year when things were looking bad for that industry. I was hoping to find another position in the same geographic area to maintain some family responsibilities here, but it's a fairly rural location, and I feel I've about exhausted the employer pool (not to mention my unemployment benefits), so it's looking like I'll have to relocate.
I didn't like the automotive industry while I was in it, and have no real desire to go back into it. In light of this extended lay off, I'd like to get into a field that's more infrastructure crucial. I have a ME and some past natural gas appliance experience, so I was thinking something in the natural gas transmission field? It seems like demand for the product will be increasing sharply in the near future.
How is the industry holding up? What would be a good job to try to get into in the industry? Who's hiring? and any other advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
I didn't like the automotive industry while I was in it, and have no real desire to go back into it. In light of this extended lay off, I'd like to get into a field that's more infrastructure crucial. I have a ME and some past natural gas appliance experience, so I was thinking something in the natural gas transmission field? It seems like demand for the product will be increasing sharply in the near future.
How is the industry holding up? What would be a good job to try to get into in the industry? Who's hiring? and any other advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!





RE: How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
There are a few bright spots in this dim picture. The Marcellus Shale in the Northeast U.S. is developing a huge gas field (95,000 square miles) and there is not much mid-stream infrastructure to get the gas to market. There have been a number of big pipeline projects announced in the last year to change that. The big players are Williams, Tenneco, and Kerr-Mcgee.
To a lesser extent (mostly because they have better access to mid-stream and downstream pipe) the activity in the Fayetteville Shale (Arkansas) and the Haynesville Shale (Louisiana) is pretty intense. There are a couple of active Shale Gas plays in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Utah as well.
If you want to enter this field you need to make sure you get familiar with the jargon. There are a lot of ways to do that. First you need to subscribe to industry magazines (I like Oil & Gas Journal, and Pipeline & Gas Journal, but there are others).
Second, study up on the acronyms. I teach a class on this stuff and had a lot of complaints from students that I used too many acronyms without defining them. This lead me to put together a glossary for the course. I've recently put the course handout on my web page (the link is below, the handout is under "Samples") and the acronym list is the last four pages. I don't know how useful the handouts are without the lecture that fills them out, but you're welcome to the slides as well.
Good luck with this.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
www.muleshoe-eng.com
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RE: How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
RE: How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
RE: How's the Natural Gas industry for employment?
The meat of the class is the lecture, the slides are just the roadmap.
Also, I have a few months between "semesters" so I'm refining the talk in response to student comments in the last semester. There will be a new version up by mid-June.
David