Heat And Dust, But Also Free Wi-Fi

Man camps on the Permian Basin are splurging on creature comforts as the battle for oilfield personnel heats up.

- Rachel Adams-Heard

There’s not much to look at except dirt, mesquite, and sagebrush around the 10 acres of flat, almost treeless land near Goldsmith, Texas, where Aries Residence Suites runs a housing complex used by itinerant oil workers. Three years ago, all 188 rooms were as empty as the landscape—a testament to crude’s tumble from more than $100 a barrel to $30. Today, prices are up to around $70 and almost every Aries bed is occupied, just as at many other “man camps” throughout West Texas.

The Permian Basin, a more than 75,000-square-mile expanse of sedimentary rock that straddles Texas and New Mexico, is drawing billions of dollars in new investment from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, and others. Oil production is set to double as a result, to reach 5.4 million barrels a day in 2023, according to estimates by researcher IHS Markit Ltd. That would top the output of any country in OPEC except Saudi Arabia.

Companies are scrambling to find people to do everything from operating drilling rigs to driving trucks. Wages have reached such lofty levels that even unskilled laborers can earn $100,000 a year. “It’s crazy,” says Dennis Noland, founder of Alpha Resources, a human resources consultant that does work with companies in the Permian. “It is the best example of a boomtown Wild West area that I’ve ever seen.”