Pipe Welding: What If It Turned Out The U.S. Will Soon Be The Top Oil Producer In The World?

Are you as tired as I am of people saying we don't make anything in the U.S. anymore? It is amazing how few people can be bothered with facts, isn't it? The facts are stranger than fiction.

The U.S. is the largest economy of any single country on the planet.

U.S.manufacturing has declined, but the U.S. remains the biggest manufacturing company in the world, with about 20% of all world manufacturing. Soon, the U.S. will be the largest producer of oil.

Yes, oil. Relatively recent shale oil discoveries, coupled with the invention of the technologies to get it out of the ground, will soon result in the U.S. having the largest reserves, and oil production numbers of any country on our little planet.

Oil - extracting it, moving it and using it involves a lot of pipe, every bit of it has to be welded by somebody. You may be thinking robots do that. Wrong. Funny as it may seem, it still takes the skilled hand of a 6G code pipe welder to get the job done.

How is the supply of pipe welders in the U.S.?

The supply is slim and about to get slimmer as the U.S. cranks up capacity. The U.S. Department of Labor projected a labor shortage of 250,000 welding professionals by the year 2010, as baby boomers retire. Well, the economy was booming when the FEDs said that. I'm sure we're not short so many now.

Follow the money.

Pipe / rig welders (chinese ppr pipe welding machine with their own welding in their truck) are making about $70 an hour is North Dakota. It's hard to find statistics specifically about pipe welders. However, if you can weld pipe well, and you're willing to go where the work is, you'll have a busy, well paid career. Why?

Only about 5% of all welders (about 5 out of 100) can weld pipe to code. This means they are certified to weld pipe by passing a difficult welding position test known as 6G. The test joint is in a fixed 45 degree angle, and it is a pipe joint (typically 6").