Posted at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 17

Fishing the oceans. Driving on ice. Chopping down forests.

How many more manly man jobs will reality TV mine for macho-riffic shows?

With the Tuesday 9 p.m. premiere of TruTV’s “Black Gold,” add drilling for oil to the list.

Thom Beers, who created “Deadliest Catch,” “Ice Road Truckes” and “Ax Men,” strikes it rich again with this show about black gold, Texas tea ... oh wait, that’s “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

“Black Gold” is nothing like “Hillbillies.” Beers’ new offering follows three groups of roughnecks on competing oil rigs who race to tap crude oil in west Texas. Although the narration gets annoyingly repetitive, the show remains compelling thanks to skyrocketing gas prices and the difficulties these men face in doing their jobs.

The crude is 2 miles under ground, which means the drillers have to connect about 350 lengths of 30-foot pipe to tap that reserve. They’re also fighting machine breakdowns, flying chains (a very scary moment in the opener) and each other—on the job, at quitting time and at the bar later on.

The marketing seems accurate: These drillers do “risk literally life and limb for our primary energy source.”

Editing creates drama where there probably isn’t any—I don’t think the crews are racing each other. A lot of the drama swirls around “characters” like teen dad Peanut (left), a rookie—or “worm” as they are called—who can’t make it to work on time. He faces the wrath of disappointed crew mates and his irritated boss, who screams enough profanities to make Kathy Griffin proud.

And if “Black Gold” doesn’t sate your appetite for tough-job reality shows, I hear Beers is working on a new project, “Shark Taggers,” for next year.

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