Portrait of a Roughneck: Human Interest Story

A very nice human interest story on the life/career of a native North Dakota roughneck.

The link will be broken shortly and/or a subscription to the original source may eventually be needed.

After the oil activity stopped in the 1980s, Tinnes spent several years working as a farm laborer and doing other odd jobs before returning to the oil fields in 2006. At age 45, Tinnes was working as a driller with roughnecks who were between 19 and 25.

His age caught up with him, and Tinnes found out he had a shoulder condition that prevented him from drilling.

That’s when Tinnes got what he calls the “chance of a lifetime.”

Gary Bercier, president of Dakota Consulting, who was overseeing the drilling rig Tinnes was working for, offered to train Tinnes to become a company man, also known as drilling consultant. Bercier said he was impressed with Tinnes’ dedication and saw potential in him.

“Most people aren’t built for this,” Bercier said of supervising drilling rigs. “Terry’s wired for it. There are very few people like him around.”

After training for two weeks, Tinnes began working as a company man, which requires him to live at the drilling location and work 24 hours a day. He rotates two-week shifts with another company man.

Go to the link to get the rest of this very impressive man's story.