Aztec Well Servicing: Oil production and home of the Professional Roughnecks

Written by Emmet Cole and produced by Nick Ledue


Contractors are routinely snatching employees from other contractors and safety and training are often ignored.

But in the midst of this oil-fueled chaos are 400-plus hardhats with stickers all reading the same thing: "Aztec Well Servicing: Home of the Professional Roughnecks." It's more than just semantics.

"We don't want a transient-type employee, because that's not a professional-type employee," says Jason Sandel, Aztec Vice President.

The company, formed in 1963 by Sandel's grandfather and currently owned by his father, Jerry, runs out of the tiny town of Aztec in northwestern New Mexico, and provides services for wells all over the Four-Corners and San Juan Basin region.

Following the motto on their hardhats, the Sandels have built an oil well services conglomerate on a foundation of employee relationships, employee safety and customer service.

Close-knit employees
Aztec has responded to the proliferation of transient workers in the oil business by investing in areas that make employees easier to retain: training, bonuses, and a close-knit family atmosphere. It's a far cry from the strategy other well service companies take.

"Some companies will increase their wage rates by 50 cents an hour across the board to try and attract drillers from competitor's rigs," Sandel says. "Instead of that, we believe what we ought to do is invest that 50 cents in training people up to the position."

The company has a 50-65 percent annual turnover ratio - a number Sandel says is amongst the best in the industry, but considerable nonetheless.


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