The advantage of getting a slope job is you can live anywhere in the state. The tough part is unless you have direct oil field experience and/or know someone in the industry it's very tough to break in. The best suggestion to gain that experience is to try and get on in the gulf, or head to North Dakota and bust your butt getting oil field experience.
Most oilfield workers don't work for the oil companies, they are contractors. It sounds like you'd be a good fit as an instrument tech, so I'd suggest looking at CH2MHill, ASRC, Nana and Udelhoven to see if they have any tech jobs listed. Getting an associates degree in that field is also highly recomended. Oil field jobs tend to pay quite well, but being away from the family for roughly half the year can be rough on the family. Many people make it work, and you get half the year off, in 2 week chunks.
