Cold Weather Doesn`t Slow Down Oil | Video

Chris Williams | 1/31/2013

The warm-up should be consolation to the thousands who moved to western North Dakota to make good money in the oil patch. It`s not like school, where the principal might cancel classes, they had to report to work.

Many of those workers from other states probably had no idea just how cold it can get here. Hearing about it is one thing, but working in it is another.

"It`s pretty cold right now. I think it`s about -45 or -50 with the wind
chill," said oil rig worker Daniel Sanderson.

Sanderson moved here from San Diego. He says he used to complain, when temperatures got down into the 20s, but yesterday he was working in -34 degrees.

"It`s pretty cold, your fingers, sometimes your fingers get to the point where you can`t feel them anymore and they start burning. They get really hot, and after that you just can`t feel them," he added.

Chuck Elkins is a truck driver, and says temperatures this cold make the lines and pipes freeze. "Your lungs have a tendency to burn if you get a little winded, and out of breath. This morning we were chaining down, and it got a little hard to breathe. It was 23 below. Thank God the wind wasn`t blowing. It gets a little chilly. It can be a little painful."

There are hundreds of water trucks on the road. Cold temperatures and water don`t mix.

"We`re going down the road at 55, 60 miles an hour, so there’s a chill factor on top of the temperature. It freezes our tubes like a solid brick of ice," said truck driver Rick Johnson.

The clothing workers have to wear to stay warm also slows them down.

"Well I got insulated overalls on. Then I`ve got a these FRs on over top of them. Sometimes I have a couple shirts on, gloves and I wear the ski mask," said truck driver Lewis Barrett.

Barrett says the cold weather sometimes gives him a headache, and Johnson`s truck wasn`t the only thing freezing.

"Everything, your mustache freezes, just like mine is right now," added Johnson.

Thankfully for these workers, temperatures are expected to start warming up on Friday.

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