In western North Dakota, oil workers try to survive hard times in a pandemic

WATFORD CITY, N.D. — Soon after graduating high school, Garrett Dodd took up welding in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, doing hard work for $16 an hour. It didn’t take long, though, for him to recognize that he could do the same work for a lot more money if he moved to North Dakota.

So in 2017, Dodd, now 22 years old, came to Watford City to begin welding in the oil fields, and before long he was pulling in more than $200,000 a year. Dodd now lives in a comfortable RV, pays $550 a month for a plot in one of Watford City's centrally-located trailer parks, and sports amenities like a sleek flat-screen television and RZR off-road vehicle.

Last November, he decided to splurge for a bigger investment: a brand-new, dual-wheeled, Dodge pickup truck. "I enjoy what I do very much, but that's part of the reason I enjoy it, if I'm being honest," Dodd said. "It, you know, it pays off.”

But almost as soon as Dodd pulled the trigger on his new truck — just before Thanksgiving of last year — he was laid off from a welding project. Undeterred at first, he worked irregular shifts in the new year, as the spread of the coronavirus in other parts of the world began to drag down oil prices. Then the pandemic hit the United States, the oil market tanked, and the jobs in Watford City dried up almost completely.

Read more: https://www.inforum.com/business/energy-and-mining/6622660-In-western-North-Dakota-oil-workers-try-to-survive-hard-times-in-a-pandemic