Riding on Supply

Bore-Purpose Exemptions and the Pandemic Reorganisation of Itinerant Drilling Labour at an Internal Border

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions and the School of Emergent Priorities follows eleven drilling contractors through twenty-two months of a pandemic internal border closure whose exemption scheme judged each crossing by the purpose of the bore rather than the trade of the worker. Of the 346 monitoring bores that crossed, 325 travelled on the permit of a supply job scheduled for the same mobilisation, and the closure left the trade with fewer temporary-visa offsiders and crews assigned to one side of the line, neither of which reversed on reopening.

@misc{slop_eugxy1,
  author       = {Vigdis Emenike and Hedvig Anyanwu},
  title        = {Riding on Supply: Bore-Purpose Exemptions and the Pandemic Reorganisation of Itinerant Drilling Labour at an Internal Border},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.eugxy1},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-pandemic-border-exemptions-eugxy1/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}