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The Dirty Hands Report - Oilfield, Williston, ND (2026)

09/13/2026

🔥 THEY DON'T PAY US THAT MUCH FOR THE WORK. THEY PAY US THAT MUCH FOR THE TIME. 🔥

Every hand has heard it from somebody who has never been out here.

"Must be nice. Half the year off."

Nah. That is not what you are looking at.

The work is not the expensive part. Plenty of jobs are hard. Plenty of guys work in weather and come home filthy and wore out.

What you are actually getting paid for is everything that happens while you are gone.

The birthday you watched through a phone propped against a lamp in a camp room.

The funeral somebody held a phone up for.

The furnace that quit at 2 in the morning on day 11, and somebody else dealt with it, because what else were they going to do.

First day of school. Anniversary. The game he got two hits in. The wedding you sent money to instead of showing up to.

That is the invoice. That is what is actually on it.

And nobody out here is asking for sympathy. We signed the ticket. Most of us would sign it again tomorrow, because this trade took guys with no degree and no plan and handed them a house, a truck, and a way to take care of people.

But when somebody calls it easy money, they are only counting the half you are home.

The wrench is not worth six figures. Anybody can learn the wrench.

The time is worth six figures.

Call it good money. Call it hard money.

It was never easy money.

— The Dirty Hands Report

09/12/2026

🚨 Diesel Just Crossed 6 Dollars For The First Time Ever. Here Is What That Costs You Per Mile. 🚨

Two different agencies track diesel two different ways.

This week both of them set an all time record.

WHAT THE NUMBERS ACTUALLY SAY

AAA tracks a daily national average off pump prices. Friday it read 6.06. First time it has ever been over 6.

EIA runs a weekly survey published Mondays. Week of September 7 it came in at 5.967, up 36.8 cents in one week. The old record on that series was 5.810, set June 20 of 2022.

Different methods, different days, same answer. Both broke.

A year ago the national average was around 3.70.

Worth being straight about one thing. These are nominal records. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 was still worse. The dollars are the highest ever, the pain is not unprecedented.

WHAT IT COSTS PER MILE

At 6.06 a gallon.

• 15 mpg pickup...40 cents a mile
• 12 mpg one ton...51 cents a mile
• 10 mpg one ton and a trailer...61 cents a mile
• 6 mpg loaded semi...1 dollar 1 cent a mile

Same trucks a year ago at 3.70.

• 12 mpg...31 cents a mile
• 10 mpg...37 cents a mile
• 6 mpg...62 cents a mile

Filling 100 gallons runs 606 today. Last year that was 370. That is 236 dollars a fill, gone, for the exact same fuel.

A semi taking 250 gallons goes from 925 to 1,515.

Run 2,500 miles a week at 6 mpg and you are spending about 983 dollars a week more than you did last September.

THE PART NOBODY TELLS YOU

Most fuel surcharges are indexed to that EIA weekly number. The one that publishes Mondays off the prior week's survey.

So when diesel runs 37 cents in a week, the surcharge on your loads is still calculated off last week's price.

You eat the difference until it catches up. On a fast run up, you are always a week behind.

That is not somebody cheating you. That is how the index is built. But it is worth knowing which number your settlement is pegged to, because right now the gap between the two series is real money.

HOW IT HITS DEPENDING ON YOUR SEAT

Hourly company hand. You do not buy the fuel. It still shows up eventually, because it lands on your outfit's operating cost and budgets move in quarters.

Percentage of load. If the rate does not move and fuel does, the percentage is the same and the margin is not.

Owner operator or leased on. You are eating it live, right now, every fill.

WHY IT MOVED

Trouble in the Strait of Hormuz has crude over 100 and refined product tighter than crude. Since late February the national diesel average is up about 60 percent.

Fall usually runs the other way. Gasoline typically softens after summer while diesel climbs into harvest and heating season. Regular gas is sitting around 4.29 right now.

Spread across the country is wide. California was 7.98 Friday. Oklahoma was 5.60.

FIELD REPORT

Drop your basin and what you actually paid this week.

Post the number off the pump, not the average. The average is a survey. What you paid is the truth.

And if you are running a surcharge, say whether it has caught up yet or whether you are still behind on it.

09/11/2026

25 Years Ago This Morning, And There Is One Part Of It That Still Does Not Get Told.

2,977 people did not come home that day. 412 of them were first responders who went in while everybody else was coming out.

The towers left 17 million square feet of steel and pulverized concrete piled in the middle of lower Manhattan, and somebody had to move it. Slowly, and by hand at first, because there were people in it.

That work went to ironworkers, operating engineers, welders, laborers and truck drivers. They ran the site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 8 and a half months. Tom McGuire, who ran Operating Engineers Local 15 in New York, said they had as many as 600 of his people down there at once. He also said that in the beginning they worked as volunteers. They were not worried about getting paid.

1.8 million tons of debris came out of that hole. 108,000 truckloads.

The dust they stood in was asbestos, silica, concrete and lead. CDC estimates 400,000 people were exposed. More than 9,000 have been lost since to illnesses tied to it, per the World Trade Center Health Program. More than 3 times the number lost on the day itself.

For 24 years the ceremony has held 6 moments of silence, each one marking a moment from that morning.

This year, for the 25th, they added a 7th.

That one does not mark a moment. It is for the ones the cleanup took, most of them years after the last piece of steel left that site.

They went to work in it knowing it was bad.

It took 25 years. Today, that bell rings for them too.

09/09/2026

🔥 The Bakken Is Pumping Its 2014 Number With 153 Fewer Rigs 🛢

WTI ran to $96.55 this morning. Brent broke $101. Highest WTI has been since June 3.

So everybody out here is asking the same thing. Is it about to get busy.

We pulled the state's own production list and lined up two months.

THE TWO MONTHS
• November 2014...1,124,679 barrels a day out of the Bakken
• June 2026...1,125,657 barrels a day out of the Bakken

Twelve years apart. 978 barrels a day MORE today.

Now the rig count on those same two dates.

• Drilling rigs turning to the right, November 2014...188
• Drilling rigs turning to the right, this morning...35

WHY
In 2014 those 188 rigs were building the thing. The well count was small and the only way the number went up was to keep drilling.

It is built now.

• Bakken wells producing November 2014...8,727
• Bakken wells producing June 2026...17,809

The most producing Bakken wells this state has ever recorded. More than double 2014.

35 rigs are not growing that. They are holding it level against decline, and a 3 mile lateral hits 200,000 barrels in about 22 months where a 2 mile well took 46.

WHAT IT MEANS ON LOCATION
Every one of those 17,809 wells is falling off right now. You have all watched one come on at 2,000 and settle out at 80.

That decline is not a problem. That decline is the job.

Somebody has to gauge them. Haul them. Hot oil them. Swab them. Pull rods. Set a workover rig on them the day they quit.

None of that shows up on a rig count. None of it goes away when the price drops.

THE CATCH
A $96 print does not land in your check this month. Budgets move in quarters, not headlines. If it holds through the fall you see it in 2027 programs, not Friday's direct deposit.

And 35 is still 35. The all time high was 218 rigs, back in May 2012.

WHERE IT GOES
Watch the completion crews, not the rig count. Wireline, frac, water, sand, hotshot. That side moves a paycheck months before a rig number does.

17,809 wells and somebody has to run every one of them. Who is hiring in the Bakken this week, check the first comment!

Every figure above is NDIC's own, off the state historical Bakken production stats and the active drilling rig list.

FIELD REPORT
Drop your basin and what you are seeing this week. Busier than you were in June, or the same grind at a better price?

09/08/2026

🚨 NORTH DAKOTA OILFIELD JOBS...WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 7 - SEPTEMBER 13 🚨

Fresh board. 10 companies, 22 open seats, over half of them need no CDL.

1. NORTH POINT TRANSPORT
3 positions...Experienced Winch Hand $34/hr...Flatbed/Stepdeck starts $30/hr DOE...Hotshot Driver starts $28/hr DOE
📍 Killdeer, ND
💰 Weekly W2 pay every Friday
📌 Housing provided...BCBS health, dental and vision...overnight per diem
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/np-jobs

2. STATELINE SERVICES
Crude Haulers and Sand Haulers
📍 Williston, ND
💰 Percentage of load...grinders clear six figures, no ceiling on it
📌 Company housing available...Class A required...ASAP start
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/stateline

3. CASTLE OILFIELD SERVICES
5 positions...Hot Oil, Supervac, Water Hauler, Hydrotester, Diesel Mechanic
📍 Williston, ND
💰 Driving seats paid by the load...put in the work and $100K a year takes care of itself
📌 Company housing provided...health, dental and vision...401K...mechanic seat needs no CDL
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/castle

4. HOSS RENTALS
6 positions...Hot Shot Driver, Roustabout/Cellar Pumper, Fleet Mechanic, Field Equipment Mechanic, Field Service Tech, Shop Hand
📍 Watford City, ND
💰 $20/hr to $55/hr DOE depending on the seat...every seat has a wage on it
📌 5 of 6 need no CDL...shop hand doesn't even need a driver license...service tech takes you with no experience...BCBS, 401k match
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/hoss

5. SENTRY ND
Pumping Unit Technician
📍 Watford City, ND
💰 $25 to $35/hr...$2,000 sign-on bonus
📌 No CDL...beam units, gearboxes, prime movers...health, dental and vision...401k...PTO
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/sentry-pumpunit

6. AMERICAN WELL SERVICE
Workover Rig Operator
📍 Tioga, ND
💰 $35 to $40/hr
📌 No CDL...running the rig, not working the floor...derrickhand time preferred...health, dental, vision and life...401k
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/aws-workover

7. CONTINENTAL RESOURCES
Operator I...entry level lease operator
📍 Tioga, ND
💰 $41,217 to $53,594/yr
📌 No CDL...operator seat with a major, they assign you a mentor...nights and weekends come with it
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/clr-operator

8. PANTHER PRESSURE TESTERS
Oilfield Hand
📍 Watford City, ND
💰 $20 to $25/hr
📌 No experience, no CDL...clean driving record and a drug test...401k with match...health, dental and vision
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/panther-hand

9. CRYPTIC SERVICES
ESP / Capillary Spooler
📍 Dickinson, ND
💰 $28 to $38/hr...14 on / 7 off
📌 Class A required...housing allowance...company service truck...paid training...people with a record encouraged to apply
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/cryptic-esp

10. BORSHEIM CRANE SERVICE
Crane Rigger (CDL-A)
📍 Williston, ND
💰 From $35.20/hr...weekly pay by direct deposit
📌 Class A required...NCCCO preferred, not required...medical, dental and vision for the family...boot and clothing allowance...paid training
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/borsheim-rigger

REALITY CHECK
Watford City and Tioga carry this week. 4 of these seats are no CDL, no experience, or both...Panther, the Hoss service tech, the Hoss shop hand, Continental. If you've been waiting for a way in that isn't a truck, this is the week.

Full board at dirtyhandsoil.com/jobs

Companies: 19K followers, over 1M views a week. DM us to get your positions on next week's board.

09/06/2026

The First Labor Day Was Not A Day Off

In 1882 about 10,000 working men in New York City gave up a day's wages to march up Broadway and prove that labor was worth a holiday. Nobody covered their pay. They bought that day themselves.

Shoemakers. Horseshoers. Printers. Bricklayers. House painters. Cigar makers. Trades. Their banners read 8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for recreation.

It took another 56 years before Washington put a 40 hour week on the books, and even that law never capped the day. It just said you get paid past 40. Most hands out here would not take an 8 hour day if you handed it to them anyway.

Tomorrow the lake fills up, the coolers come out, the grills fire. Meanwhile there are drilling rigs turning to the right tonight. Frac crews pumping. Wireline rigged up, workover rigs sitting on a wellhead, pumpers running routes at daylight, water haulers on washboard road at 4 in the morning. A well does not know it is Monday.

Every boat on that lake and every mile of that drive home runs on something somebody pulled out of the ground on a day the rest of the country had off.

Labor Day is the only holiday this country ever named after the people who work. The patch does not get it off.

If you are on location this weekend, drop your basin and what you are running. The field checks in on Labor Day too.

09/05/2026

🔥 DIESEL JUST SET THE HIGHEST PRICE IN AMERICAN HISTORY 🔥

5.85 a gallon Friday. It broke the record that stood since June 2022, the same day crude closed its best week since July.

Those are the same story. Only one of them shows up in your tank.

THE NUMBER

GasBuddy called it Friday. 5.85 national average, past the old record of 5.82 set in June 2022. AAA landed on the same 5.85 the same day off a completely different dataset.

On GasBuddy's ladder:

Today...5.85
Last September...3.70

2.15 more a gallon. Same fuel, same nozzle.

BEFORE SOMEBODY SAYS IT

This is a record on the sign, not adjusted for inflation. A 2022 dollar bought more than a 2026 dollar does, so in real money 2022 still hurt worse. Nominal record. It is still the most this country has ever averaged.

And an average is an average. Somebody reading this paid over 6 yesterday. Somebody else paid under 5.60.

Crude alone doesn't explain it either. GasBuddy names tight refining capacity and thin inventories right alongside the geopolitics. Diesel has been outrunning crude, and that's a refining story more than a barrel story.

WHAT IT COSTS

• 300 gallons across both tanks is 1,755. That same fill last September was 1,110.

• At 6 mpg you're burning 98 cents of fuel every mile. Last year it was 62.

• Hotshot, 1 ton and a loaded gooseneck at 10 mpg, a 500 mile run is 292. Last year 185.

Run your own mileage. The arithmetic doesn't change, only the number at the bottom.

Nobody's rate went up 2.15 a gallon this year.

IT MAKES THIS INDUSTRY, NOT JUST MOVES IT

An all diesel spread burns around 9,500 gallons a day on a small job and multiples of that on a big one. At 5.85 the small one alone is about 55,000 dollars of fuel in a day.

Now the part that gets left out. Most modern fleets are dual fuel or full electric and displace a big share of that with field gas off the same pad. At 60 percent substitution a 20,000 gallon a day fleet cuts 12,000 gallons out of the bill.

This week is the entire argument for why that iron exists.

And it comes all the way around. The crude out of these wells is what gets refined into the diesel that fracs the next one.

THE PART THAT'S BACKWARDS

WTI closed the week at 91.48, its strongest week since the middle of July.

Out here that reads like good news, and across a couple quarters it is. Higher crude is what puts rigs back to work and fills a completion calendar.

But the supply picture that lifted crude is the same one that put diesel on a record.

So the headline that eventually puts iron in your yard is the same headline emptying your fuel card today. One of those is a quarter out. The other one already happened.

THE THING ABOUT FUEL SURCHARGES

Surcharge schedules commonly aren't priced off the pump. They're priced off the government's weekly retail diesel number, and that comes out Monday afternoon.

So in a week where the price is climbing, the surcharge you're paid this week got built on last week's price.

When diesel is falling, that works in your favor. It's the first week of a run like this one that hurts, because you're buying today's fuel against a number set before it moved.

Worth knowing which index your surcharge keys off and how often it resets. Most guys have never been told.

THE BOARD

Diesel...5.85 (record)
WTI...91.48
Brent...96.28
Nat Gas...2.980

OPEC+ meets Sunday and is widely expected to leave October alone.

WHO'S HIRING

10 companies on the board, 4 of those seats need no CDL. Link's in the first comment.

FIELD REPORT

What's diesel at your pump right now. Town and price, that's it.

5.85 is the average. Let's see what the sign actually says where you fuel.

09/04/2026

🚨 PERMIAN + DELAWARE JOB BOARD ... September 3

9 seats open across West Texas and southeast New Mexico.

PERMIAN SIDE

1. Fuel Hauler, Class A ... FuelCo Energy
📍 Midland, TX
💰 $26 to $28/hr
📌 Home daily. Paid orientation and training, 401k match. Class A with tanker and hazmat. Company says local applicants only
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/fuelco-fuelhauler

2. Field Service Tech, Wellhead Systems ... J&W Services
📍 Midland, TX
💰 $25 to $30/hr
📌 API 6A wellhead work, 2 years installing and servicing wellheads. Posting states people with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/jw-wellhead

DELAWARE SIDE

3. CDL A Winch Truck Driver ... Omni Environmental Solutions
📍 Pecos, TX
💰 $20 to $28/hr, $1,250 to $1,960 a week
📌 Home daily, day shift. 5 on 2 off or 6 on 1 off, 50 to 60 hours. Tanker and hazmat required, 2 years verifiable. $2,000 sign on
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/omni-winch

4. Class A Crude Hauler ... Crude Oil Hauler
📍 Pecos, TX
💰 $300 to $450/day
📌 1099, paid by percentage. Day and night shifts with differential, weekly pay, sleepers available. 6 months crude experience
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/westtx-crude

5. Diesel Mechanic ... Chalk Mountain
📍 Mentone, TX
💰 From $90,000/yr
📌 Heavy truck and diesel engine work. Own hand tools required, clean MVR
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/chalk-mechanic

6. Crude Oil Hauler ... INDECA Crude Xpress
📍 Hobbs, NM
💰 $110,000 to $140,000/yr
📌 Will train experienced fuel haulers over to crude. Class A with hazmat and tanker, 5 on 2 off or 5 on 3, monthly safety bonus
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/indeca-crude

7. Chemical Service Tech ... Imperative Chemical Partners
📍 Hobbs, NM
💰 $27 to $30/hr
📌 0 to 2 years oil and gas. Chemical treatment of wells, 3 year clean driving record
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/imperative-chemtech

8. Roustabout Pusher ... GIS
📍 Hobbs, NM
💰 $20 to $25/hr
📌 5 on 2 off, 2 man crew. Flow lines and pump jacks, 5 years required
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/gis-roustabout

9. Hot Oil Operator ... Crain Hot Oil Service
📍 Lovington, NM
💰 $75,000 to $100,000/yr
📌 Class A or B with hazmat and tanker. Local route, 6 months hot oil
🔗 dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/crain-hotoil

All 9 with apply links, plus the Bakken board ... dhr.dirtyhandsoil.com/permian

REALITY CHECK

None of these ads offer housing. Plan on having your own place.

Hiring down there? Message the page and we'll get your openings on the board.

09/02/2026

🔥 AMERICA IS SITTING ON 114 MILLION FEWER BARRELS OF CRUDE THAN IT WAS A YEAR AGO 🔥

EIA put the weekly out this morning. Every outlet ran the 4.5 million barrel draw and quit reading. The number that matters is one column over, and nobody touched it.

THE NUMBER

Total crude in this country, commercial tanks plus the emergency reserve:

711.1 million barrels this week
825.4 million barrels a year ago

Down 114.4 million. Almost 14 percent of the national crude cushion, gone in twelve months.

WHERE IT ACTUALLY WENT

Commercial crude, the tanks refiners and traders actually run on, sits at 424.5 million. A year ago it was 420.7 million. That is UP 3.8 million.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve sits at 286.6 million. A year ago it was 404.7 million. Down 118.1 million, off 29 percent.

Read that again. The private side of this country's storage is fuller than it was last year. Every single barrel of that 114 million came out of the government's reserve.

The buffer got spent. The working tanks never flinched.

And before somebody says it, a good piece of that release was written as an exchange, not a sale. Companies borrowed those barrels and owe them back, plus extra on top. So some of it comes home eventually. Eventually is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It isn't in the ground today and it isn't in the caverns today.

WE'RE MAKING MORE, NOT LESS

Same report. Same morning.

Domestic production...13,862,000 barrels a day
A year ago...13,423,000

Up 439,000 barrels a day in twelve months. Lower 48 is 13,419,000 of that, Alaska the other 443,000.

That is not a record and I'm not going to dress it up as one. The high we reported back in July was 13,934,000. This week came in 72,000 under it.

Refineries pulled 17,496,000 barrels a day, up 627,000 from a year ago, running 98 percent of capacity. The Midwest ran 103.5 percent. Operable capacity is a rated number, and a plant will run right past it when the margin is worth the wear.

Exports jumped 691,000 barrels a day in a single week to 4,483,000.

Produced more. Refined more. Shipped more. Crude stocks still fell on the week.

WHAT IT MEANS OUT HERE

For a year the reserve covered the difference, and it's 29 percent lighter for it. Whatever comes next gets answered by what comes out of the ground, not by what gets released.

That's every basin on the map. Permian, Bakken, Eagle Ford, DJ, Anadarko, Rockies, Mid-Con, offshore, and every patch that didn't fit on that list. Canada too, though those barrels come in on the import line instead of the production one. This country brought in 6,770,000 barrels a day last week, up 612,000 in a week.

And it isn't only rigs. 588 were turning on Friday's count, 267 of them Permian, and that's 52 more rigs than a year ago. Every one of those is a crew working. But North Dakota alone has 19,961 wells already producing, and those make money long after the rig moves off. The workover hands, pumpers, hot oilers, vac truck operators, water haulers, roustabouts and wireline hands keeping them alive don't show up on any list anybody quotes on a Friday.

Now the part nobody wants to hear. None of it hits your check Friday.

Operators budget in quarters. Crude at 90 for three days is a headline. Crude at 90 sitting in a quarterly plan is a rig contract, and those are two very different things. Watch what shows up in your yard, not what shows up on a chart.

THE BOARD RIGHT NOW

WTI...90.74
Brent...95.59
Nat Gas...2.98

Crude is above where it settled last night and over 7 dollars above Friday's close.

WHO'S HIRING

Hiring moves last, not first. Ten companies on the board right now and 8 of those seats don't ask for a CDL.

Board link is in the first comment.

FIELD REPORT

Drop your basin and tell us whether your yard feels like a 90 dollar market yet.

Bakken, Permian, Eagle Ford, DJ, Anadarko, Rockies, Mid-Con. Did your calendar fill up these last two weeks, or does it look the same as it did in July?

09/01/2026

No Oilfield Experience? Your Resume Isn't The Problem

Guys spend 3 months applying to Continental, Chevron and Devon and wonder why nobody calls. Those are operators. They own the well. They're not hiring you green.

The service companies are. The outfits that own the rigs, the trucks, and the pumps.

What they actually screen for, what to put on a blank page, and the one thing that gets you run off.

The Dirty Hands Report - Oilfield

09/13/2026

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09/11/2026

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