A-18 is a new blog spotlighting stories from the back of the newspaper.
The beginning of January brought harsh news for the unskilled oil rig workers known as roustabouts (not to be confused with the traveling circus worker of the same name): it’s listed as one of the top 10 worst jobs by Careercast.com. The article concludes, “if you’re considering a career change (in the turbulent economy), the following are your worst possible options.”
But an article on page A-14 of Sunday’s (1/25) New York Times (close enough?) might give the maligned manual laborers reason to be happy. Can anyone say: furlough in Rio?
That’s what roustabouts and roughnecks (one rank above roustabouts) can look forward to when Brazil launches an offshore drilling project with a newly pledged $174-billion investment.
That means new job opportunities during a down economy, and the possibility of shore-leave on the Copacabana.
The drilling project is expected to yield up to 12-billion-barrels of oil – with one field predicted to have eight-billion-barrels alone, making it the “world’s biggest new field since a 12-billion-barrel find in Kazakhstan in 2000.”
This is good news for the oil industry, but not great news for bio-fuels and the environment. Brazil has been an ethanol star for the past decade – but more oil means lower prices per barrel. And with prices already 60%-less-per-barrel than they were last summer, ethanol is now the more expensive option. Couple that with the global economic crisis, and bio-fuel investments dry up and the industry stalls. This is already happening in Brazil, according to a Boston Globe article from November.
Kudos to Brazil and resurgent roustabouts. But by plundering the earth for more oil, we are delaying the inevitable day when we’ll have to do something other than just dig.
