Low oil prices force Oklahoma drilling workers to seek out new livelihoods
Other men bought big houses or new pickups with their oil money. Mike Gillham bought his favourite bar in Enid, Oklahoma. He heads there most nights, to lug in more beer, to throw darts with his regulars, to smoke Camels and sit with his wife and wonder how to keep getting by, now that his oil job is gone.
Four years ago, Gillham stumbled upon what is more or less an economic lottery ticket for an American man whose education stopped after high school. It paid more than any other gig he'd had - more than all three of the jobs, combined, that he'd been working simultaneously before a buddy called and invited him into the well-paid world of the oil and gas industry.
There's going to be very few opportunities paying anywhere near what they're making. That's beginning to dawn on them
Improved hydraulic fracturing technology made it possible to extract oil and gas from fields thought to be tapped out
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