Oil Rig Jobs

Are you having trouble finding oil drilling rig jobs? Are you wondering if entry level oil rig jobs really exist? You have been looking unsuccessfully for onshore and offshore drilling rig jobs, and maybe you even know people who have been laid off from their oil field jobs. Right now, you are probably wondering if you should just take that job at Walmart or MacDonald’s and forget about the oil industry altogether.

You are not alone in your predicament. Many other workers and job seekers in the oil industry have the same problem. But you need to remember why you originally wanted a job in this field – the high pay. The oil industry pretty much pays double the salary of most other industries, especially to the men working in the oil fields and offshore oil rigs. Only the sin industries (like tobacco and alcohol) and finance pay as well as this. A new roustabout (whose work compares to a general laborer on land) could easily earn up to $50,000 a year while working only 6 months out of every year. Every 2 weeks he spends at work offshore earns him the next 2 weeks off.

If you have more specific trade skills, like a mechanic or electrician, you could easily get $55,000 to $65,000 a year. Someone with relevant higher education could become an engineer earning $80,000 a year working on an offshore oil rig. And none of these are management jobs. These are all positions where you do good honest work. Unlike politics or selling used cars, you will have no trouble facing yourself in the mirror every morning when you shave.

Now, the money you potentially stand to get is one important point, but are there really job vacancies? After all, you have probably heard that Schlumberger is cutting 5000 jobs. But did you know that they have a $1.77 billion order backlog? Are they really axing the workers actually doing the frontline work of fulfilling these orders? Or do you think it more likely that they are trimming the fat from the sales and finance side of their business – culling the bottom 10% to 20% of their salesmen? Of course, we also shouldn’t forget to count the retiring workers hired during the last oil boom in the 1970s.

No matter what other people say, oil drilling rig jobs still exist… IF you are willing to go where the jobs are. For example, in March ‘09 oil rigs in East Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were still hiring workers. On the other hand, if you insisted on staying home with dear old Mum in South Texas, you are probably still jobless today.

Offshore, the situation is much better. Transocean is still hiring people for the new offshore oil platforms (at least for 2009 and 2010). A good 60% (worst case scenario) to 80% of offshore rigs are still working. For the overseas situation, Australia lists petroleum engineering as one of the skills shortages. Canadian oil companies are also doing relatively well. In general, they are only cutting salaries – 4% for skilled positions and 12% for entry level jobs. Those with an appetite for risk can try one of the African nations like Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Companies with operations in the Middle Eastern hotspots like Halliburton should still be hiring oil rig workers.

Some of you may wonder – how about long-term work? Well, despite the recession, Exxon is still spending nearly $30 billion on oil exploration and production in 2009. They also intend to spend this same amount for the next five years. They are not the only ones. Analysts from Barclays Capital Research estimate that oil companies worldwide will still spend $400 billion in 2009. As the recession ends and oil prices shoot up again, this amount will only increase. With oil companies spending so much money, you can be sure that there will be oil rig jobs.

Going forward, the International Energy Agency estimates that oil producers need to spend $20 trillion over the next 25 years to meet increasing energy demand from China and India (both economies grew more than 5% even while everyone else was in recession) as well as replace aging oil fields.

Basically, roustabout job vacancies and offshore drilling jobs still exist. An oil company may shut down a particular oil field because it is growing old and becoming too expensive to extract the oil from it, but it will expand operations in another younger oil field to make up for the drop in production. As long as you are willing to move to a different place, you should be able to get an oil drilling job.

As a job seeker, finding entry level roustabout jobs and other oil drilling rig jobs is a numbers game. You cannot just rely on advertisements in your local newspapers or free online job boards to look for work. You need to be willing to relocate to a different state. You need to be more aggressive in getting your job applications and resumes out in front of the hiring managers in oil companies and oil services contractors.

To recap, the oil drilling rig jobs are out there. But you need to step out of your comfort zone. You need to be willing to relocate to a different state or even a different country. You can’t just rely on the old ways of looking for jobs. You need to know where and how to find these entry level oil rig jobs.

RigWorker.com has been helping people get oil drilling rig jobs since 1998.

Click here to find out how we can help you get your resume/cv in front of the hiring managers for oil rig jobs.

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