Oil Rig Jobs

You’re young, you’re fit, you’ve gone through high school but don’t have a college degree, and you figure that earning $40,000 to $55,000 a year for honest physical work sounds pretty good. Since you’re here reading this article, it also means you know next to nothing about working on an oil rig, and almost certainly don’t know anyone in the industry.

First thing to do is to fix that ignorance. You can’t fake experience you don’t have, but you can show that you have a good attitude by doing some background research on your own. To that end, we’ll list a bunch of books you can read, so that you’ll at least understand what the job vacancy postings are talking about when you find them, be it in the newspaper job listings or on the online job boards. Having more background will also help when you need to do research using Google to help you write your resume, because even if you’re just going to be a roustabout/leasehand, you do need to know a bit about the company you’re applying for before you write your cover letter and resume. Besides, let’s just say that you do get to the interview – you don’t want to sound like an idiot too lazy to find out about oil drilling, do you? Being a noob is not a sin, but idiocy and being too lazy to learn will definitely sink your chances.

VPS
The content on a private virtual web server is administered through a webspace hosting CP just as any other cheap shared hosting package. This may be the web page hosting Control Panel that the web hosting corporation is furnishing, or any other Control Panel that the client makes use of - Hepsia, cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, H-Sphere, and so on. All web site files, mails, databases and domains can be managed via the web space hosting CP, and certain GUIs also offer a couple of management levels - master reseller, reseller, user, and so on. This unfolds multiple opportunities for business as the private virtual hosting server owners can reseller hosting services or have resellers of their own. More experienced users can administer everything via a Secure Shell console as well.

Borrow the books below from your local library, or buy a copy from Amazon. So what’s good preparation for an oil rig career?

Being new at your job does not mean you need to be ignorant. It is true that you will start at the bottom as a roustabout, and it is true that your company will give you training (assuming you get hired). But knowledge is power, and knowing more than the other ignorant louts applying for the same job increases your chances of getting hire. I recommend that you read the first book in the list, Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers: Thirty-three Years in the Oil Fields, even if you have to buy it. Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling & Production, 3rd Ed. is good to have, but not a must. You can also buy the other books in the list, but it is good enough if you borrow them from your public library to read.

Are there offshore oil rig jobs in Texas? Yes, of course there are. After all, Texas is one of the Gulf states and there is still plenty of offshore oil drilling going on. Unfortunately, this does not do you much good if you are not living in Houston or somewhere else nearby. That’s because most oil drilling companies with rigs off Texas have an office there (in Houston).

There are many job seekers looking for offshore oil rig jobs in Texas. Of course, most of those posting on the net are from out of the state or even out of the country. You can tell this from the way they write and the kinds of questions they ask. Many of them say they are willing to move and able to work hard. However, they say this while typing on a computer in their homes sitting on their asses. They want to get an offshore oil rig job in Texas before they are actually willing to move or even visit.

That’s just like a sissy, lacking guts and commitment. The ones who successfully get drilling rig jobs on offshore oil rigs are men with guts and commitment. They are men who go to where the work is and then look for jobs there, not sissies sitting on their arses begging for work on the web.

From the point of view of a job seeker, Texas, like every other Gulf state with oil in their waters, have two types of offshore oil rigs. The first is located near the shore and hire roustabouts and other crew by the day. That means you go to their recruiting point early in the morning and then try to get yourself chosen for that day’s oil crew. Usually, you will travel to and from the rig by boat. If you get hired, you will be doing general unskilled labor under supervision. It is not a career but is mainly a way of gaining experience. It is also a way of getting yourself noticed as a hard worker and team player as well as making friends with the supervisor (usually an experienced roustabout or a roughneck), hopefully getting a longer contract.

The second type of offshore oil rig is located farther away from shore. You will normally get there by helicopter because it is too far to go by boat. The tour of duty will normally be two weeks on and two weeks off, although there is an increasing number of tours with three weeks on and two weeks off. Basically, you do not get a break (i.e. no weekends) when you are on the offshore rig.

This kind of oil rig employment usually needs some form of related experience. That’s where the daily rate jobs really come in useful. However, if you are personable and lucky, you might be able to parlay experience on a land-based oil rig into a job. If you have not worked on an oil rig before but have marine experience, e.g. working on a trawler or as a Navy sailor, you should also have a chance.

But how do you do your oil rig job search? Simple. Go to the docks and talk to people. Find out where the day labor recruitment points are. Find out which offshore drilling companies are still operating their oil platforms in Texas waters then go visit their local office. Too shy to talk to strangers? What are you, a girl? If you don’t have the guts don’t ask to work in the oil industry.

If you want work on an oil rig off the shores of Texas, go to Houston. Be prepared to live in a cheap motel or even camp outdoors if need be. Buy the local papers to look for job advertisements but most importantly go to the docks and look for the day job recruitment points. Remember to also find out where the local offices of the oil drilling contractors are and go there to look for jobs.

In the oil and gas sector, the job of mud loggers is one of the most misunderstood. Firstly, it is often mixed up with the job of the mud engineer and the MWD technician. Second, the hiring requirements often vary widely by company. Third, while the core job scope is pretty clear, a mud logger often has to perform other supporting duties and this can not only vary by company but by the equipment used and the worksite as well.

What Does Mudlogging/Mud Logger Mean?

“Mudlogging” is usually written as one word but “mud logger” is usually written as two words. In Geology, mudlogging is actually a field of study called lithography, which is a branch of petrology. Lithology/Mudlogging is the representation of geological formations using a graph. The graph is called a mud log and the data fed into it comes from the analysis of the materials that come out of the drill.

What Is The Difference Between A Mud Logger, Mud Engineer And MWD Technician?

There are three different oil rig jobs which are often mistaken for one another. These are the mud logger, the MWD technician and the mud engineer.

A mud logger analyzes the drilling fluids that come out of the oil drill. In the oil industry, this fluid is called mud. Despite its name, “mud” is actually a complex formula of different chemicals. The best formula for a drilling fluid depends on the type of drill being used, the type of drilling being done, and the composition of the rock formation which is being drilled.

The mud logger’s job is to retrieve and process the rock samples out of the mud and then analyze them. After that, he needs to plot his findings in the mud log. In most modern drilling operations, the data is entered into a computer which then plots the graph. This graph is used by the oil company’s geologists.

A Measurement While Drilling (MWD) technician produces much the same data as a mud logger. However, rather than extracting samples of drilling fluid and then running a chemical analysis on the bits of rock suspended inside, his data comes straight from electronic analysis equipment attached to the drill bit. Because of this, his job is simpler and less messy. He can also produce his data and analysis much faster than a mud logger. However, MWD equipment is very expensive which is why they are mainly used for directional drilling.

The mud engineer makes sure the drilling fluids work as specified. These fluids (or mud) are used to cool the drill bit during operations as well as remove the rock being drilled through. Since there is no single best fluid for the whole drilling operation (when drilling very deep into the ground), it is his duty to figure out what is best used at each stage of drilling for oil. Normally, the mud engineer (or drilling fluids engineer) is not only a college graduate, he also worked his way up the ranks through the position of derrick hand or pump man. He also has to go through a special training course called “mud school” and in many cases has serve an apprenticeship under a senior mud engineer to gain experience. In some places, the mud engineer is also called the “mud man”. He usually works closely with the mud logger (and MWD technician when present). Sometimes, he also supervises the mudlogging operation, i.e. in some cases he is the mud logger’s boss.

What Does A Mud Logger Do?

Earlier, we said that a mud logger analyzes the trailings (in the mud) that come out of the drill. That is his main job, which is somewhat similar to that of a lab technician. The difference is that he needs to do this continuously during his shift of 12 hours everyday. In general, he will work the same tour as the rest of the oil rig crew, which is usually two weeks on and two weeks off.

What creates confusion is that some mudlogging jobs require chemical analysis of the samples, monitoring of gas levels in the bore and/or monitoring the state of the drilling mud. Some of these additional duties actually cross over with that of a mud engineer or even a petroleum geologist.

Something else that creates confusion is that different companies and different oil rigs use different types of equipment and gather their samples and data differently. In some cases, the drilling fluid comes out of the drill into a holding tank, and the mud logger than extracts samples from this tank for analysis. He will then have to analyze the samples. This analysis can be as simple as looking at the sample and then recording the depth at which it was taken and whether it is sand, shale, rock and if it is fluorescent. On some rigs, there is a lot of automation and his job becomes very similar to that of an MWD technician, mainly recording data returned by his instruments.

Mud loggers usually work in a lab that is set up on or near the oil rig. On offshore oil rigs, they sleep in the crew compartments with the rest of the oil rig crew.

What Qualifications Or Experience Does A Mud Logger Need?

This varies by company. Large companies which provide more varied mudlogging services often require geology degrees (or something else comparable). However, in some smaller companies it is an entry level job and they are willing to take in high school graduates as apprentices. Familiarity with electronic and/or computers is usually required with modern mudlogging operations.

Mudlogging on deep water offshore oil rigs usually requires men with more experience and better (academic) qualifications. On the other extreme, mudlogging on an oil rig sited on a mature oil field on dry land may only need a high school graduate with a few weeks or months of on-the-job training.

Beyond academics or job experience, a mud logger usually has to be a bit of a lone wolf. He usually comes from different company than the rest of the normal oil drilling crew. He works alone and usually does not see any other mud loggers except at shift change. He is often treated as an outsider on the oil rig and does not share in the camaraderie of the rest of the crew working on the oil rig.

Where Can One Find A Mudlogging Job?

Normally, mudlogging is not performed by the oil drilling contractor but is conducted by a separate company. The three biggest mudlogging companies are divisions of Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Schlumberger. However, there are many more smaller companies, some of which survive by providing very highly skilled and specialized mudlogging personnel.

An important point to note is that even when both the drilling and mudlogging are hired out to the same company (e.g. Schlumberger), the tasks are normally performed by two different divisions.

Finding oil rig vacancies for mud loggers is not so easy. The job seeker must match his experience and qualifications to what a mudlogging services company is looking for. If he has no previous experience and no college education, he must find a smaller company which normally works on land and is willing to train him from scratch. If he has a relevant college education (e.g. a Geology degree), he can look for advertisements from the larger companies.

How Much Can A Mud Logger Earn?

This depends on the company and the exact type of services offered. When more work is done (requiring more experience), the pay can go up to $80,000 a year. On older oil fields on dry land, the work is easier and safer and pays much less, maybe around $50,000 a year. That said, many mudlogging companies pay their mud loggers daily, so a mud logger who does more work will get earn a higher salary. Daily rates vary from $150 to $300 and may include additional payments for expenses.

However, money is not everything. There is a lot of pressure in this job, much more than many other jobs on the oil rig. Especially on offshore oil rigs, many mud loggers burn out after just one or two years. In some cases, the mud logger directly reports to the big boss on the oil rig, which can be the company man, the toolpusher and/or the driller.

Jobs in oil and gas for mud loggers are not as easy to find as other entry level rig jobs (e.g. roustabouts). Partly, this is because the task is performed by a third party company so the job seeker cannot just visit an oil rig to enquire for a vacancy. Partly, the difficulty is because to some companies, mudlogging is a job which requires a great deal of skill, experience and qualification.

Be it mudlogging, MWD or mud engineering, a college degree in geology and/or chemistry will not automatically give you the experience to do the job. In most cases, you still need additional training or apprenticeship. It helps a lot to do some background research on your own before you go job hunting. Talk to your lecturers and instructors, and hunt down your graduated seniors to pick their brains. This kind of secondhand and third-hand knowledge is no substitute for real experience. But it demonstrates a good attitude to your future boss when you show up at the interview. To learn more about getting a clue, read this related article, How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast.

The oil industry pays well. This is why many people want to work there. This is true even for those without a college education. So if you have a strong back but dislike the thought of going to college, working on an oil rig is the job for you. There is no other place where you can earn $40,000 to $50,000 a year doing good honest labor. Even if you want to go to college, it can be a good idea to get an oil rig job. Just one to two years of hard work could pay for your entire 4-year Bachelors degree course without your having to take out an expensive student loan.

You may wonder how to get such a job if you do not have any experience. Fortunately, like any other industry there are jobs for those starting out. You can start at the bottom with entry level rig jobs and work your way up. So how do you find these oil rig jobs which need no experience?

First of all, you need to know that there are generally three types of oil rig jobs in the United States: onshore, offshore and deep water. Onshore means oil rigs on land. While they pay better than many other jobs requiring physical labor, they usually offer the lowest wages out of all the oil rigs. There are three main reasons for this: these onshore oil rigs are usually sited on older and less productive oil fields; the working conditions are not as severe as those on board offshore oil rigs; the working conditions are less dangerous those than offshore oil drilling jobs.

“Offshore oil drilling rig” usually just means any oil rig that is not placed on dry land. It can be a jack-up rig in shallow waters near the coast or it can be a drillship working in deep waters. However, a deep water drilling rig is usually sited in waters over 1000 feet in depth. These oil rigs are sometimes built on large ships and sometimes on something like a giant barge or man-made island. There is no precise definition possible because the technology used to find and drill for oil advances rapidly, sometimes incrementally and sometimes in leaps and bounds. Most offshore oil rigs are a mixture of both old and new technologies.

As you may expect, drilling for oil in deeper waters is much harder and more dangerous than drilling in shallow waters in sight of land. Offshore oil rig jobs in deep waters usually require at least some degree degree of experience and pay much better. The $50,000 and $60,000 a year roustabout job wages you sometimes hear about are usually for these kinds of oil rigs. Work on oil platforms in shallow waters normally pay $5000 to $10,000 less.

One important point you need to be aware of is that quoted salaries for many drilling rig jobs are usually calculated on a daily rate. That’s 12-hours a day 7 days a week with no weekend breaks and inclusive of night shifts. Depending on the company, you might work 7 days, 14 days or 21 days at a stretch before you get time off. Time off also varies from one week to two weeks. A job requiring three weeks on and two weeks off usually pays more than a job requiring two weeks on and two weeks off.

One of the best way to get entry level rig jobs is to start modestly by looking for a roustabout job on a land-based oil rig. You will need to live in a state which has plenty of such oil rigs, e.g. Texas or Virginia. In good times, there will be many jobs advertised in the local newspapers. In tougher times, you may need to visit the oil fields one by one to look for roustabout job vacancies.

Once you have some experience, you can move to one of the Gulf states and look for a oil rig job vacancies. Start with drilling rigs in shallow waters, then move on to deep water rigs when you have more experience. As older oil fields on land and in shallow coastal waters become depleted, future offshore oil jobs will be in deep waters or alternative sources like oil shales and oil sands.

Many job seekers fail to find or get entry level rig jobs because they are impatient, too lazy or simply expect too much. Yes, wages are very high. But you need to work your way up from simpler rigs to more complex platforms and drillships. A job on an older oil field on land may only pay a bit more than a laborer’s job in a construction yard but can be a good way to gain much needed experience for more difficult offshore drilling jobs.

It helps to be patient. Start slow, and start from the bottom. But even before that, make sure you learn about the working environment of the oil fields in your area. After all, you don’t want to sound completely ignorant when you show up looking for a job, do you? However, that does not mean faking experience that does not exist – there is no way you can do that. What you can do is show that you have a good attitude – make sure you know a bit about what’s going on when you ask for a job at the oil rig. Read this related article for more details: How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast.

Oil rig jobs pay well, especially those located offshore in deep water. They often pay double or more for equivalent jobs on land. However, those with no experience usually have little chance of getting a piece of the action unless they have the connections (e.g. a father or brother who is already a veteran oil worker).

The problem is that an offshore oil rig is a complicated piece of machinery that costs billions of dollars to build and at least half-a-million dollars a day to operate. A careless or clueless worker could easily cause an accident that could derail operations for several days, costing the offshore drilling company hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. This is not just the cost of repairs, but could include the loss of profits, penalties from the oil company that hires the oil rig, penalties from the government and work stoppage from inspections and investigations into the cause of the accident. The worker himself could well lose his life or be horribly mutilated. This is the same reason oil drilling contractors are so strict about not hiring workers who are drug addicts or users.

Nevertheless, there are ways to get hired for offshore oil rig jobs with no direct experience. One way is if you have a relevant and useful trade skill, e.g. if you are an experienced welder, electrician or mechanic. Another is if you have a specialized certification or qualification like a Registered Nurse or certified radio operator.

One option if you have absolutely no job experience is to get on board as a roustabout or steward. Stewards usually work indoors. They clean the crew quarters, do the laundry and help the cook. There is not really much room for advancement, and normally those with related experience, e.g. those who have previously worked on a cruise liner would have a strong advantage.

In theory, a roustabout does not need any experience. All he needs is guts, a lot of brawn, a good dose of common sense and the ability to follow instructions. In practice, if you really have no experience, you should spend some time in related jobs. What kind of jobs? A sailor in the Navy or Coast Guard, a laborer in a construction yard, a dock hand, a fisherman on a trawler, a roustabout on a land-based oil rig, etc.

As you can see, these are all jobs where you have to work outdoors even in bad weather. The best is to combine a stint on the sea as a sailor with a stint on land working as a roustabout. Then you can more easily convince the drilling company to hire you.

Does this mean you have no way of working on an oil rig right after graduating high school? Not necessarily. There are ways to find roustabout job vacancies without going through the job boards. If you can find the hiring manager and directly get an interview, you might be able to talk him into giving you a job. But this does require a certain amount of luck. Of course, it is easier to get lucky in good times when oil companies are desperate for workers.

However, those who favor making their own luck should first join the Navy or Coast Guard. While serving their nation, they should make sure to work as a real sailor at sea and pick up some other useful skills at the same time. That way, they have more options of getting hired when they finish their service. For example, a sailor with welding skills and skill in operating the radio has three options for getting an oil rig job. He can become a roustabout, with the possibility of promotion to roughneck, derrick man, and driller. He can become an oil rig welder. He can become a radio operator. If he chooses not to work at sea, he also has plenty of options on land.

There are many ways to get no experience oil rig jobs. If you have the patience and are willing to work hard, fill up the gaps in your experience by getting easier and lower paid jobs. As you gain experience, you can then move on to a more difficult job. Ultimately, getting a high paid job on a deep water oil rig should not be a problem. Like it or not, drilling in deep waters is the future of the oil industry.

Nevertheless, good future or not, you can’t afford to be clueless if you have never worked on an oil rig. You need to make an effort to get inside the head of a real oil rig worker. Read How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast for extra details.

When you are looking for oil rig jobs, it is reasonable to wonder which drilling rigs are hiring. When times are good, it is enough to take the lazy way out: looking at oil drilling job ads in the newspapers and job boards as well as registering yourself with recruitment agencies. But when the going gets tough, the job seekers who find the vacancies are those who go the extra mile,

So how do you find out which drilling rig is hiring? Frankly, that depends on two important things: who you know and what kind of job you are looking for.

If you already have some experience working on an oil rig, you should already know some people. Go talk to them and let them know what you are looking for. Don’t be shy. Don’t feel embarrassed. If you cannot do something so simple, you do not deserve to get any oil drilling rig jobs. You never really know when one of your ex-colleagues, ex-bosses or acquaintances might be able to help you. Just remember that what goes around comes around. If they try to help you, make sure you pay them back one day.

Once you get that out of the way, it is time to get down to the nuts and bolts of the drilling rig job search. How you find a drilling rig that is hiring depends on whether you want an offshore drilling job, a deep water oil drilling job or a land drilling job. There are differences in how you approach each type of job search.

Searching for roustabout jobs on an oil platform that is located in shallow waters just off the coast is fairly easy and passive. Many of these oil rigs have day-rate vacancies for entry level jobs and often have some designated point and time where they pick up workers. Get there early so that you are at the head of the crowd and you have a good chance of getting picked. How do you find this place (and the pickup time)? Just ask around the docks and your state’s unemployment office (assuming there is offshore drilling in your state).

Searching for land drilling rig jobs is a lot more tedious but not too difficult either. You need your own transportation and a good map of your state. After that it is just a matter of driving around looking for oil fields and talking to the guy in charge of the field or rig. Be persistent. Sometimes the oil patch you visit has no job vacancy for you but the next door oil field may have plenty of work.

Looking for offshore drilling rig jobs in deep water is a lot more complicated. However, it can be worth it because they usually pay the most. If you are fresh out of high school, have no seagoing experience and no hard labor experience, you probably do not have a chance. But if you have ever worked on a trawler as a fisherman, a sailor in the Coast Guard on Navy, or as a laborer in a construction gang, you have a decent chance of getting in as an entry level roustabout even though you do not have directly relevant experience.

One way of finding jobs on these deep water drilling rigs is to hang out around the heliports in your state. Because the rigs are usually far offshore, most drilling rig companies transport their workers to and from their offshore rigs using a helicopter. An important thing to note is that these tours of duty are usually two weeks on and two weeks off, i.e. the workers work two weeks straight without a break and then get the next two weeks off. Like most men in difficult jobs, after they get back to dry land many of them will unwind in the nearest bar. This bar is probably near the heliport or airport, so hang around, listen in on the conversations and figure out who you should talk to.

Are there other ways of finding out which drilling rig is hiring? Sure there are! But these are the methods few of your competitors use to look for oil rig jobs.

That said, try not to sound completely clueless when you show your face to ask for a job. If you live in a state that has oil fields, some of your local community colleges will have short training courses on roustabout jobs or other work on an oil rig. These courses are a cheap investment (if you are an official resident in the state) and will keep you from sounding like a total boob when you go trawling for oil field or oil rig work. But what if there is no state educational support available to you? Then you’ll have to do your own research: How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast.

If you are looking for jobs offshore but have no experience, it can be difficult to know where to start. However, it is not as difficult as many people think. Finding and getting the oil rig job is not particularly complicated. It just takes time and effort. The real problem lies in keeping the job once you get it. There is a good reason why offshore drilling contractors are always hiring workers for their offshore oil platforms – the work is very tough and many men find they can’t take the hardship.

So how does a man get oil rig jobs with no experience? Well, if you really have absolutely no experience – never worked at sea, never worked in construction, never worked on a land oil rig – you can only start at the bottom. A slow, steady and sure way is to prepare yourself by spending a year or two on each of the jobs mentioned above. It earns you relevant experience and it toughens you up for a real job offshore on an oil rig.

Of course, you may prefer the less certain shortcut of trying for roustabout jobs vacancies on oil wells in shallow waters near shore. In the Gulf states where there is a lot of offshore oil drilling, there are offshore oil rigs which operate near land. Such oil rigs sometimes hire temporary workers on day rates during periods of high activity. All that the oil service contractor needs from such temp oil workers is a strong back, the ability to follow instructions and the ability to swim so that they do not drown if they fall off the boat transporting them. In many cases, the contractor draws these workers from the state unemployment office. It is a good way to gain much needed job experience on an offshore oil well and can get you much needed contacts for more permanent employment. However, if you are not a resident in a Gulf state, this option may not be open to you.

Roustabout jobs on land provide a different experience from oil rig roustabout jobs offshore. Land-based oil rigs are usually smaller operations than offshore oil rigs. Nevertheless, there are still many features in common between the two, and getting experience on an oil well on dry land can provide valuable skills when working offshore. If you supplement it with job experience on a trawler or Navy or Coast Guard sailor, you will have a much better chance of getting hired for entry level rig jobs compared to someone who just graduated from high school.

Yet another alternative is to gain some kind of useful skill that can be transferred to an offshore oil rig. One such example is scaffolding. In a construction yard, the basic hourly rate is around $4 to $7, and you have to work 12 hours or more. Take this skill to an offshore oil rig and you can expect to earn somewhere around $55,000 a year. If you have a head for heights and are willing to slave away for a year or two to gain the needed job experience, this can be a good option.

Trade skills are also another path on to an offshore oil rig. There are posts for welders, electricians and mechanics on board an offshore oil platform. It helps if you have worked on a land rig before, but actual offshore experience is often not necessary. You can make around $55,000 to $60,000 a year, which is about double the wages on land. However, one disadvantage of such jobs is that career promotion prospects are limited. A common roustabout can work his way up the ladder to roughneck, derreck hand, assistant driller and driller. An experienced driller on a deep water oil rig can expect to make $100,000 a year or more. On the other hand, trade skills tend to be easier to transfer between land and sea, so it all evens out.

There are many paths to oil rig jobs offshore when you have no experience. What is important is your determination and for you to keep an open mind.

Of course, it helps to actually have a clue when you go looking for a job offshore. For more details, read this related article: How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast.

Are you looking for oil rig vacancies? This is a good time to look for jobs with oil drilling companies because oil is selling above $70 per barrel, hence driving oil companies to drill more oil wells. Obviously, more drilling means a need for more workers on the oil rigs. But how do we find out which drilling rig is hiring?

First, there are the usual ways which most job seekers use – scanning jobs advertisement section of the newspaper, looking on the internet and posting their resume on job boards like Monster. These techniques have the same pros and cons, namely, that you will get the same results as everyone else doing it. In good times, everyone will get the same above average results and most job seekers will eventually get hired for oil rig vacancies. In tough times, everyone will get the same mediocre results and most job seekers will remain unemployed. If you are happy getting the same results as everyone else, you can stop reading here.

Second is networking, i.e. talking to anyone and everyone you know. Open your mouth and tell them that you are looking for drilling rigs jobs. Job seekers who need to be told this probably do not have any connections with someone in the oil and gas drilling industry. Nevertheless, if you put in enough work to talk to enough people, someone will know someone who knows which drilling rig is hiring and will be able to give you a reference or recommendation. If you cannot find at least a hundred family members, friends and acquaintances to talk to, you probably do not want to find an oil rig job badly enough. On the other hand, it is also fair to say that if you like talking so much, maybe a career in sales or politics may also be suitable for you.

Third is a bit special. If you only want oil rig employment on dry land, then go fishing for oil rigs. An important point is that you need to be living within driving distance of oil fields. If there are no oil fields in your state, this method does not work. Anyway, what you need to do is get a detailed map of your state. Draw up a search grid on the map and start driving around. If you already know the location of some oil fields, visit them first. If not, search each grid on the map one by one. When you find an oil field, go to the person in charge of each oil rig and talk to him. Ask him if he has any oil rig vacancies. Note that on some oil fields, every oil well is owned by or operated by the same company, so you may only need to talk to one person. On other oil fields, there could be more than one owner or operator and you could have several chances to find oil rig roustabout jobs. This is really a brute force method, but it often lets you find oil rig vacancies before they get advertised.

Fourth is another brute force method – mass submission of your resume to oil companies and oil drilling contractors. There are businesses which have a large list of the contact numbers and email addresses of the rig managers and HR officers of the oil companies and oil service contractors (or so they claim). Basically, you pay them to submit your resume to all the companies that may be hiring for drilling rigs jobs. They do not normally charge very much – their rates usually range from $20 to $100 depending on the company and the exact services you pay for. On the down side, while there are some companies which are effective, others are either incompetent or outright scams. Using these resume mass submission services is easy and can definitely work, but unless you are lucky you could blow a whole lot of cash before finding a reliable company.

Fifth is to cold call. To do this well, you need to find the Yellow Pages for each state and look for the contact numbers of all the oil companies, drilling contractors and service companies. Pick up the phone, call the company and find out how to reach the HR department, then call HR and ask if they are hiring for oil rig roustabout jobs or any other job on their oil rigs. It is a brute force method much like the fourth method above, except that you are doing all the work yourself. On the other hand, all you pay is the phone bill. You should be able to get your state’s Yellow Pages for free (or cheap). Your local library should be able to help you get the Yellow Pages for other states (if no one in your state is hiring).

Finding oil rig vacancies is not rocket science. However, if you want to get extraordinary results and find (roustabout) job vacancies that have not yet been advertised, it can require brutally hard work. Nevertheless, those prepared to put in the effort will find an honest job that pays as well as many white collar jobs.

Like the US, there is a lot of oil and gas drilling in Canada. Unlike the US, there are some unique environmental constraints that affect drilling jobs in Canada. For one thing, if you work as an oil worker in Canada, you will be cold most of the time. Most of the oil drilling occurs in the cold North (Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia) in winter.

Most of the Canadian oil rigs are located on land. Technically anyway. The reason most oil drilling only happens in winter is that most of the oil fields are somewhat marshy. Oil drilling contractors can only drill effectively in winter, when the ground is frozen solid. Unfortunately, that means you will work in the cold and snow most of the time. Because the sun only comes up for a short while each day, most of your work will also be done in rather dim light.

Worse yet, Canadian oil workers usually work on an hourly or daily rate, which means many oil workers have to look for other work in fallow months. That does not mean Alberta oil rigs (or Saskatchewan oil rigs) do not work at other times of the year. There are still oil rigs located on dry ground, and working on these oil fields can get very hot in summer.

Drilling rigs in Canada are usually in rather out-of-the-way spots. Some oil fields have become sufficiently established that small towns have grown up nearby, but there are many oil fields where the workers have to stay in company-provided camps. These camps include sleeping quarters, kitchen and dining room and a laundry (but not necessarily any form of recreation).

While some oil rigs remain fixed in position, others move around a fair bit. Oil rig crews follow their rigs around, which can sometimes mean extended periods of time far away from home. Transport between home and rig is usually not provided, although transport between rig and camp is. Like in the US, Canadian oil rig workers work 12-hour shifts, some of it at night. Unlike the US, Canadian tours are two weeks on and one week off. Considering that workers are paid hourly or daily and that most of the drilling only happens in winter, this is not a bad thing.

Unlike offshore oil rigs which can have hundreds of workers, drilling crews on Alberta oil rigs consist of twenty people at most – three to four crews of four or five people. There is the driller, derrick hand, motor hand, floorhand and leasehand. In the US, the floorhand would be called a roughneck and the leasehand a roustabout. Like the US oil industry, promotions can occur rapidly. The climb from leasehand to rig manager (toolpusher) can happen in just eight years.

Like most of the rest of the world, oil companies do not usually own or drill individual oil wells. Instead, they hire drilling contractors who own and operate the drilling rigs which do the actual work. Those looking for oil rig jobs on Alberta oil rigs (and Canadian oil rigs in general) would do well to remember this.

Floorhand/Leasehand

Leasehands (roustabouts) are the lowest ranked members on the drilling crew. They perform most of the general labor on the site, all the way from loading and unloading trucks to digging ditches and scrubbing and cleaning equipment. Floorhands (roughnecks) work on the rig floor.

Unlike the US where a roustabout can learn everything on the job, Alberta and other Canadian states require even workers in entry level rig jobs to take special training course before starting work. This is in addition to the First Aid and H2S Alive (hydrogen sulphide training) certifications. Some employers have additional requirements, e.g. certifications in Fall Arrest and/or Waste Hazardous Material Information System.

In Canada, there are actually recommended wages set for workers in the oil industry. For leasehands, the hourly wage is $23. For floorhands the hourly wage is $25.25. When working away from home, there is even a recommended living allowance – $50 a day when a camp is provided and $140 a day when a camp is not provided.

Rig Technician – Derrickhand/Driller/Motorhand

In Alberta, the motor hand, derrick hand and driller are classified as rig technicians. These rig technicians have to be licensed by the Alberta government. Before licensing, they have to work as apprentices at least three years (1,500 hours of on-the-job training and 120 hours of technical training each year). Recommended wage rates are $27.50 per hour for the motor hand, $32.25 per hour for the derrick hand and $38.50 per hour for the driller.

Employment on oil rigs in Canada is just as hot as in the USA. However, the physical and regulatory environment is a bit different.

NB: Wages are quoted in Canadian currency and meant to be a rough guide. Actual wages depend on the employer.

Compared to the US, oil rig employment in Canada is more tightly regulated. Nevertheless, being clueless when you go job hunting is still a major sin. Whether you are a Canadian or an American going up north to work in the oil fields, make sure you do your research ahead of time. It shows a bad attitude when you turn up at the job interview and do not know what the heck your (future) boss is asking you. Read this related article on how to avoid being bitten on the ass by ignorance: How To Become An Offshore Oil Rig Insider – 7 Tips For New Starts To Get Hired Fast.

This is a good time to find employment on oil rigs. Despite some recent reversals (the 2009 recession and the early-2010 Deepwater Horizon sinking), the demand for workers on oil rigs is continuing to grow. Although governments and economists are warning of a fragile recovery, the price of oil is already hovering at $70 per barrel in mid-2010.

Despite being a far cry from the peak of $140 per barrel in 2008, this is quite sufficient to drive investment in new oil wells by oil companies (oil needs to sell for $30 to $40 per barrel before oil companies are willing to drill new oil fields). That means employment on oil rigs is set to grow.

You may be wondering where to find jobs on oil rigs. The best places are newer oil fields which have a long term future. In the US, this is mainly the deep water oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. In Canada, it would be the Sasketchawan and Alberta oil rigs.

For American oil workers, there is great advantage in working on offshore oil rigs. Besides the better long term opportunities, it is possible to claim tax breaks (both federal and state level) for employment on these oil rigs as they are often located in international waters. Of course, you need to consult with a qualified accountant or tax lawyer for the details. It may also be possible to claim for transportation costs between home and heliport as well as equipment costs (e.g. boots and hardhat).

Note that Americans moving to Canada to find oil rig employment and vice versa should adapt to differences in job title and licensing requirements. An American oil rig roughneck is a Canadian floorhand, while an American oil rig roustabout is a Canadian leasehand. A Canadian roughneck is a highly qualified worker, roughly the equivalent of a motorhand, derrick hand or driller in the US.

In terms of qualifications, a Canadian oil worker needs to have the H2S Alive (hydrogen sulfide safety) and first aid certifications before he can get a job on an oil rig. In contrast, offshore employment on (US) Gulf oil rigs usually require the HUET (helicopter underwater escape training), first aid and firefighting certifications.

Job schedules also vary between the US Gulf and Canada (Alberta). Although oil rigs operate 24-hours a day and workers have to work 12-hour shifts, many US workers on offshore oil rigs work on a 2 weeks on/2 weeks off rotation or 3 weeks on/2 weeks off rotation. On the other hand, Canadian oil workers usually have a 2 week on/1 week off rotation. Oil rig employment in the Gulf tends to slow down in the hurricane season (June – November), whereas in northern Canada the strongest surge of employment on oil rigs is in winter (November – March).

The world runs on oil and demand will continue to grow as the economies of China, India and Asia become more developed. There will be more and more opportunities for employment on oil rigs both now and in the future. Add the fact that work on oil fields pay well and you can see that the future is bright for workers in the oil and gas industry.