The great number of offshore oil rig job vacancies in the oil-gas industry offers great employment opportunities each month. The number of offshore jobs vacancies is following the trends of oil product prices. The oil drilling activity is increasing each year as well, offering a good trend for plenty of entry level jobs.
The offshore vacancies are mainly for roughneck and roustabout jobs. The offshore job pays are actually for 6 months work – the rest of the time is in on-shore breaks and the entry level salaries start from around $45,000. Those types of oil rig positions are commonly for newcomers, and pertain mostly to the tasks of equipment cleaning and painting, and removing the rust from the salt water. A good part of offshore jobs also includes crane operators, catering, shift supervisors.
Workers on drilling rig platforms (in some cases workers on liquefied natural gas company platforms) range from the well-educated engineers that develop tools and plan methodology to the roustabouts that do the “dirty work” which keeps the drilling rig running smoothly. What is the salary in the oil extraction industry depends upon the job even for untrained employees, the pay can be attractive.
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What is actually involved in offshore oil rig jobs?
You do not have to be a big, strong man to work on an offshore 
oil rig. There are lots of different offshore vacancies on the drilling rig platform, which require different types of skills and abilities from the future oil rig workers with no experience or the skilled one.
While you could enjoy an offshore oil rig job such as a Roughneck offshore oil rig worker or Roustabout on the drilling rig platform, there are also many distinct jobs available in less physically demanded positions such as a Cleaner/ Painter, Storekeeper, Cook or Medic. Engineers on the drilling rigs, doctors and nurses are also needed on drilling rigs. It’s a self-sufficient operation, so there is a need of people to do all manner of jobs.
How much do offshore oil jobs pay?
A lot of the offshore oil rig companies announcing layoffs are publicly-listed companies – and announcing layoffs is a classic technique to keep their share prices from sinking too much. On the other side, privately-held drilling companies, use recessions as a good chance to leapfrog ahead of their oil rig competition. That’s the kind of a strategy that conservative investors like Warren Buffet usually use to make themselves billionaires (which is some kind of a skill). That’s why there are still offshore oil rig jobs, which are available, if you only know where to search for.
We may divide offshore oil and gas industry into 3 different fields:
- Upstream – exploring and drilling for oil
- Midstream – refining and oil transportation
- Downstream – sales and oil distribution
The biggest need for skilled offshore oil rig workers is in the Upstream field. According to the information from April meeting of American Association of Petroleum Geologists, graduate students (Masters degrees and PhD degrees) were being hired with salaries starting from 80,000 US dollars to 110,000 US dollars. The question is why? Because a lot of the offshore oil fields today are growing old and production is past its peak offshore oil rig companies need to find new oil fields fast and they need younger geologists in order to replace their retiring geologists, many of whom were hired in the 1970s.
In the long run, demand for offshore oil geologists is going to remain high – after all, out of 20,000 geology undergraduates, only 2,800 pass their Bachelor’s degree at the end of 4 years of study. Given this report by the American Geological Institute, it is still worthwhile to study Geology in university if you have the brains for it.
A challenge, good to be undertaken…
Nowadays, the demand for oil still continues to increase rapidly and as a result the offshore oil rig jobs market is wide open. Offshore oil rig companies (drilling rigs) have their oil rigs working day and night in order to find new offshore oil fields to meet the demand. Each oil rig employs hundreds of drilling rig workers to keep it going day and night drilling and searching for oil.
Entry level for offshore oil rig jobs with no experience
An entry level drilling oil rig job is the easiest to find. These drilling rig jobs sometimes require certain skills but they don’t require previous oil rig experience.
Entry level oil rig jobs include:
- Maintenance Roustabout
- Roustabout oil rig worker
- Welder
- Medic
- Scaffolders
- Radio Operator
- Rig Safety & Training Co-ordinator ( Medic )
- Mud Engineer
- Materials Person
- Painter
- Motor Man
- Electrician
The salary for these offshore jobs with no experience ranges from 47,000 U.S. dollars to 80,000 U.S. dollars depending on the background and skills, which might be required. The oil rig vacancies market is expected to raise 30 per cent by 2015/2016.
Here are some of the most popular offshore drilling rig jobs with no experience or for skilled drilling rig workers.
Deck Crew Jobs
- Maintenance Roustabout oil rig worker – he is accountable for
general deck maintenance on the drilling rig, cleaning and painting. - Maintenance Foreman – oversees Maintenance Roustabouts.
- Roustabout oil rig worker – he guides the crane, which moves equipment and materials about the drilling rig and is accountable for keeping the pipe deck and the main deck clean and orderly.
- Assistant Crane Operator – he is generally an oil rig worker that has been promoted from Roustabout and has become qualified to operate the crane on the drilling rig. For Salary and Basic Job Description click here !
- Crane operator – he operates the crane and supervises assistants and Roustabouts on the drilling rig. For Salary and Basic Job Description click here !
Drill Crew Jobs
- Supervisors and Engineers on Drilling Rigs
– According to a report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 162,570 people nationwide work on gas and oil drilling rig platforms. The biggest number of these employees, about 15,720, were petroleum engineers. On the drilling rig, these employees ensure equipment they have designed is running fluently and safely, and they also monitor whether their work plan is being carried out properly.
- Roustabouts on Oil Rigs – The 2nd-largest group of workers can be found at the opposite end of the wage spectrum from petroleum engineers: the 7,740 roustabouts that clean and provide maintenance of the equipment on the drilling rig platform.
- Another hands-on job which is at the low end of the oil rig pay spectrum belonged to the employers that set up and repair rigging on the site. They averaged US$30,080 annually, or US$14.46 per hour.
- Pumpers on Drilling Rig Platforms – The 3rd-largest group of workers on drilling rigs were the wellhead pumpers that are engaged with operating and maintaining the large pumps that draw the oil from the earth once the well hole has reached the underground reservoir. The U.S. Statistics Bureau reported the 7,510 pumpers in the field of oil extraction industry averaged… For Salary and Basic Job Description click here !
- Extraction Work on Oil Rigs – There are 3 main types of skilled employees on drilling rigs which are the service unit operators that maintain wells and pumps, the drillers that run the rotary drills on the oil rig platform and the derrick operators that maintain the support structure. According to the statistic 5,630 service unit operators as of 2014 are averaged US$47,120 annually, or US$22.65 per hour 4,430 drillers are averaged US$63,400 annually, or US$30.48 per hour and 2,370 derrick operators, who are averaged US$52,520 annually, or US$25.25 per hour.
Board Crew Jobs
Beyond the oil rig jobs with no experience required to operate the deck and the drill, there are a whole hosts of offshore oil rig jobs options, which keep the drilling rig in full operation. They include such positions as Catering who gets from 45,000 to 63,000 U.S. dollars – the staff, which keeps all the oil rig workers fed from day to day. Then there is the Barge Engineer oil rig worker, the Control Room Operator and the Assistant CRO who makes sure the drilling rig is staying afloat properly and get a salary from 59,000 to 89,000 U.S. dollars.
A personnel of electricians on the drilling rig is available to handle the repair and maintenance of anything electrical aboard the drilling rig platform. There are a few people that oversee the management on the drilling rig platform and get the awesome number from 108,000 to 160,000 U.S. dollars of the drilling rig and they are usually the people that have worked their way up through the ranks. A personnel of mechanics with salary from 57,000 to 87,000 U.S. dollars handles the repair and maintenance of anything mechanical, including the diesel generators of the drilling rig platform.
This detailed overview of the offshore jobs market is giving you a glance of the oil rig job vacancies, which are available on the drilling rigs and how much they get.
Outlook
Oil rig and gas drilling jobs are expected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to grow at 8% in the years between 2015 and 2020, slower than the average growth of 14% expected for all US jobs. Even though demand is going to be driven by the need for these products, advances in drilling techniques are being expected to result in more efficient production.