Offshore Oil & Gas Future Development

In some ways, a job in an oil rig is a bit like a jail sentence, or a job in the army. You are confined to a rather cramped location for a long period of time, then the people in charge let you out. Then you go back in. And out again. And repeat this process again and again.

In other ways, life on an oil rig is quite good. An entry-level job could bring you $50,000 or more per year for just 6 months of work. Compare this to an office clerk who only brings home $30,000 to $40,000 per year while working 5-1/2 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Or a junior computer programmer who often has to work 50 to 80 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. (more…)

Oil field jobs form their own niche in the oil and gas industry. For example, their job responsibilities, workload and scope are very different from jobs in an oil trading company. Their closest relative would be offshore oil rig jobs. Nevertheless, a roustabout on an oil field will have different ways to do his job compared to a roustabout on an offshore oil rig. In fact, a roustabout on an Alaskan oil field will also do his job differently from a roustabout on a Saudi Arabian oil field.

That said, the current boom in the oil sector is a great boon to anyone who wants to start in this industry. If you are young, fit and willing to work hard, you should be able to easily find an entry level oil field job. Note that working hard does not mean spending 12 hours every day, 7 days a week sitting on your backside in front the computer in the office. On an oil field, working hard means you engage in a lot of intense physical labor outdoors in all weathers. For example, you may need to stack 100-pound pallets during a storm. (more…)

With the current oil boom likely to continue into the next decade, many oil companies are desperately hiring workers for offshore employment in exploration and drilling work. In North America, Houston, Tulsa and Alberta have featured in the news in the past year. However, wherever you can find oil and gas, you will find the major players present.

The generous salaries and benefits offered by oil companies are well known. So is the hard physical work. But do you know about the offshore work schedule? Most offshore work is structured so that you work 1 week on/1 week off, or 2 weeks on/2 weeks off, etc. Quite common is 4 weeks on/4 weeks off. You may even find 6 weeks on/6 weeks off. (more…)

So, you want to work an offshore drilling job. Do you know which companies are involved in offshore oil drilling? Besides the super-big players like Esso, BP, Shell, etc. Did you know that these big boys do not always do their own drilling? Quite often nowadays, they are forced to subcontract some of the work to smaller players.

Have you heard of these companies: Diamond Offshore (Houston, USA), Dolphin Drilling (Tananger, Norway), and Frigstad Offshore (Singapore)? How about Offrig Drilling ASA, Scorpion Offshore, Songa Offshore and Thule Drilling ASA? These are just some of the companies in the modern oil industry. In their own way, you can call them the modern wildcatters. During the last slump in oil prices, the giants like BP and Shell stopped investing in their staff and oil drilling technologies. But some smaller companies correctly predicted that prices would rise again. They invested in R&D to develop new drilling techniques and technologies. They build new oil rigs for deep-ocean drilling. These are the boys that Shell and BP are sub-contracting for oil drilling services. (more…)