Up close look: Buckeye students tour working drilling rig

SHERRODSVILLE — About 20 students in Buckeye Career Center's energy operations program got a hands-on, up close look at the oil industry last week as they toured a working drilling pad in Carroll County.

The students, wearing hard hats and safety glasses and clad in fire-resistant coveralls, toured on Thursday Encino Energy's Leeper pad, located close to the Tuscarawas-Carroll County line near Sherrodsville. The pad has been in operation for the past several months and will have four wells on it when drilling is completed in mid-May.

State Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, and Commissioner Al Landis, also came along to see the well pad.

One of the students on the tour, Brysen Thompson, a junior from Carrollton, said he plans on seeking employment in the oil and gas industry once he graduates.

"There's so many opportunities in Ohio. You wouldn't have to travel far from family. It's a very big opportunity," he said.

His biggest takeaway from the tour?

"It's crazy to see how far people come to Ohio to work for these opportunities and how much money you can make, and how well organized everything was," Thompson said. "Everything was set up to help prevent big spills, to protect our nature and things like that."

The level of professionalism at the well site "was very cool as well," he said.

The energy operations program at Buckeye has 27 juniors and 27 seniors currently enrolled. The students learn a variety of skills to prepare them for employment in the oil and gas industry. Those skills include operating and maintaining heavy equipment, determining survey elevations for gas and oil pipeline construction and earning safety credentials necessary for employment in the industry.

Instructor Brandon Irwin said the tour was a good experience for his students.

"I've shown videos and animations of drilling and fracking (hydraulic fracturing), but it just means so much more to see in person and hands-on, rather then watching a video," he said. "Now they can physically see what's happening on the pad and put it in perspective in their own mind how it works."

Irwin has experience working on pipelines, but he had never been inside a drilling rig before.

"Just seeing that in person and being able to go up into the doghouse and talk to the operator and the driller, you just see these are everyday guys. Any of these kids could end up being them up there drilling someday," he said.

A doghouse is the nickname for the rig site command center.

The tour has been in the planning stages for several years. Buckeye students went on a well pad tour in 2019, but the pad was already in production so they couldn't go on the rig, said Jackie Stewart, director of external affairs for Encino.

The plan was to have students tour a rig in 2020, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After the omicron variant wave subsided earlier this year, plans went forward for the tour.

Encino Energy, which has its Ohio headquarters in Carrollton, is the largest producer of oil and second-largest producer of natural gas in Ohio.

Stewart said there are several reasons why the company does these tours.

"First of all, we're proud energy workers, and we feel like we have a responsibility to not only tell our story but to really encourage and excite others to join our industry," she said.

"What we do is essential to life, and we're really proud of that. So hopefully, these kids can see from myself and my colleagues and others that were out on the rig today that this is a wonderful career. We really truly love what we do."

Stewart was impressed by the Buckeye students.

"Based on a lot of what we saw today, the kids were amazing. They were really engaged. They were respectful. It was really nice," she said.

Both Hottinger and Landis spoke in glowing terms about their experience during the tour.

"The takeaway I had was I saw a guy that moved here from Seattle," Hottinger said. "He came here specifically for these opportunities. I just don't want the young people here not to be aware of the great opportunities that are in their back yard."

Landis said the tour was very informative about careers in the oil and gas industry.

"To be able to get the students out on a working well pad is just a tremendous opportunity. They get to see first-hand what goes on," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Up close look: Buckeye students tour working drilling rig