Its Ness City, Kan., shop is set up with a complete Cummins Insite engine analysis system, as well. It's not just the driving conditions that make work challenging for NCRA's drivers. For instance, the oil that comes out of the ground sometimes brings with it dangerous amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas best known for its rotten-egg stench. Most of the oil wells are unmanned operations, so the drivers are on their own when they are loading their vehicles. We have breathing apparatus we have to use on some of the hydrogen sulfide wells.
Drivers also keep an emergency five-minute air supply close at hand.
Even the gas's smell is an inadequate warning sometimes, he said. In a real high concentration, it could kill your sense of smell so quickly you couldn't tell it was there. Plus, we test all locations before we haul from there. Drivers also have to know something about practical hydrocarbon chemistry. They must assess the condition of the oil at each well's storage tank by determining the amount of water and foreign matter in the crude, as well as the oil's temperature and specific gravity.