Onshore Oil and Gas Drilling
To this day, despite the surge in offshore oil and gas drilling, onshore drilling is still the core of U.S. and world oil and gas supplies. True, it’s well known that Middle Eastern nations have the lion’s share of proven and probable onshore oil and gas reserves. True, even Alaska’s mammoth onshore field at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope and most other fields in the lower-48 U.S. states are declining.
Nevertheless, onshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) employs the many more workers than does offshore drilling, if heavily concentrated less than a handful of states. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in the oil and gas well drilling industry accounts for more than 135,000 jobs in the USA. Although onshore oil and gas extraction establishments are found in 42 States, almost 3 out of 4 of the industry’s workers were located in just four States – California, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.”