Here in the Bakken there's this entity called the OIL COMPANY. The Oil Company thinks they're KING of the Bakken. Yep. And as King of the Bakken they ask you to jump and you pretty much ask, "how high?!" with great enthusiasm!
The catch 22 of the oil company is that they think they're running the show and that they can dictate how they want everything to go. If you don't do things "JUST SO" then it's a NO GO and you're outta here! And they are KINGs of their own individual kingdoms. There are LOTS of big egos strutting around here!
The frustrating part of the oil company king is their billing requirements. They want everything in triplicate but it's not a carbon form triplicate - it's "do the same thing three different ways and call it backup" then put it on an invoice. We are to attach all the backup to the invoice, but we don't dare staple it! NO, no no no, we MUST use paperclips. Yes, we assemble the multiple invoices that have been broken down not just by site, well location but also by individual wells on location (the triplicate becomes a sextuplicate and sometimes an octoplicate - and yes I have invented these terms!) Billing is not only divided by location and well but it is also divided by type of work. Did you haul water and gravel? You have to separate that out. Did your roustabout crew do some work. They have to have their own invoice too. OH and you plowed snow with your grader? That's separate too. Wait, you placed tanks with your crane? And all of this was done at well location 123-45-6C-78- for well 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H...AHHHH you get the point!
So now you have an invoice for 123-45-6C-78-1H, 123-45-6C-78-2H, and so on - for each individual task. Invoice 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 for each well for the scoria delivery. Invoice 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, for the roustabout work on the treater shack. Invoice 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 for the water hauling for their frac tanks. AND SO ON. The backup documentation - which is in triplicate, must be copied and attached to each individual invoice. This can average anywhere from 3-10 pages or more per invoice.
This would be a great math story problem. We have 7 wells, 7 different types of jobs, 6 pages of backup - all need to be copied and assembled then taken to the oil company to have them signed off on. How many pieces of paper did we use??? We have used almost 2/3 of a ream of paper. How many sheets in a ream? 500. YES! We use 300 sheets of paper just for the initial assembly of these invoices. OH WAIT...we HAVE to keep a copy for our records because if they come back and want changes, we need to have something to reference! YOU GOT IT! Another 300 sheets of paper end up in our file cabinet.
I'm thinking the oil companies need to start some tree farms.
Sad thing about all this is that what you have read is simply how ONE of our oil companies wants things done. Others want us to use THEIR invoice program to submit our invoices. That means we have to generate an invoice on our program for our books, then login to their system and generate another invoice on their system to submit. Then we have to scan in and upload all of our backup documentation and attach it online to the invoice we have now created in their system. Saves paper but not time!
As the title states...dealing with billing for the oil company IS a BLOODY NIGHTMARE!
And that is all.
Peace out!
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