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If you happen on an "acronym" you don't know what it means, put your mouse arrow on top of it and you get an explanation. The deepwater explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico [ April 20, 2010 ] accident investigation came to an ending on September 14, 2011, when the Joint Investigation Team and Federal reports were realeased. There were fingers pointing at BP and also spreding the blame to personnel who didn't react to warnings about possible serious risks. Middle of July about 45.000 people were involved with the clean-up efforts and in October 2011 there were still over 16.000 people cleaning up the oil, out of which about 10.000 in Louisiana's marshes. As comparison there's still restoration work going on after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. However, most probably the Horizon accident in Gulf of Mexico did slow down but not stop the recovery of oil exploration and production in North America. First deepwater drilling permit since the Horizon blowout / explosion, was issued first week of March 2011; since then ( until Sept. 22 ), BOEMRE has approved a total of 135 deepwater permits requiring subsea containment. Get The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill And Offshore Drilling's Final Report
The near future offshore employment: The majority of new oil exploration and production happens in very deep water. Therefore floating drilling, production, and storage units will increase in numbers. These do not need many long pipe lines at the sea bottom, which would be expensive and difficult to maintain. So employment on FPSO tankers and SPAR-rigs will increase, which means more ballast operators. A SPAR-rig is like a big floating drum with some ballast to keep it up-right and then the machinery on top. On Sept. 16, 2010, it was reported oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico will be required to set permanent plugs in nearly 3.500 non-producing completed wells with a subsurface valve in place and dismantle about 650 production platforms if they have not been used for last 5 years. The dismantling means additional jobs. [ Source ] Fixed platforms will continue to exist for some time ( with their pipelines ) but getting older and needing more underwater maintenance. Therefore the need for ROV and UUV operators and technicians is increasing. |
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The North Sea is a mature oil field and there isn't much new construction going on any more. Technically the production situation isn't same as it was 20 years ago. Environmental requirements are stricter today than they were 20 years ago. A mature oil field like the North Sea relies on continued capital investment to stop production from reclining. At same time small operators are running short of available cash-flow. It's not possible to continue in the old ways. There is, however, new technology available but it seems to need new business models ( August 2009 ) and new solutions to old problems. What is said above about the North Sea applies also to the shallow parts of Gulf of Mexico. Many rigs were de-commissioned during 2009, several Jack-ups were returned into service in 2010 after technical up-grading. As in the North Sea this requires differently trained and technically more skilled personnel than before. During second half of 2009 and in 2010 some old oil rigs were technically up-graded to enhance additional recovery from already "empty" wells. For instance several old wells could be connected to just one upgraded rig only. Instead of using 3 rigs with 6 rotating crews there would be needed only 2 crews. That could make those 3 old wells profitable again. There will probably be some new developments in the North Eastern part of the UK North Sea sector - close to Shetland Islands. These will, however, not increase the needed work force. They can merely reduce number of jobs likely to be lost. Trainee roustabout jobs are therefore hard to come by. In the UK North Sea sector there are more applicants than vacancies. If you are British it's better to look farther away from home, for instance Norwegian and Canadian North Atlantic areas have some new installations coming up, including employment on construction barges. Then the areas north of the Arctic Circle - ( Barents Sea and the continental shelf north of Alaska ) - are under close study and will soon be opened up for exploration / production. In extremely severe conditions. The total number of roustabouts on any one oil field is not great. The number varies depending on the current amount of exploration and production work. Normally the roustabouts are hired locally at different geographic locations depending on where the rig / MODU is. Get on a virtual tour of the Captain Platform in the North Sea north of Aberdeen. You need Flash to see it. |
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Changing Job MarketsThe 2009 "economic crisis" did have some effects on open vacancies offshore in the short term. Some producers ( Saudi ) very fast cut down on the production and also some new exploration / production start-ups were postponed. I would expect mainly older rigs taken out of production and scheduled for overhaul / maintenance. Therefore the demand for new drilling crews should come down while the demand for maintenance crews should increase. This would mean less demand at top of the "skills ladder" and higher demand on lower level manpower. Especially so in the Persian Gulf and possibly rest of Middle East.Deepwater projects, however, are mostly big projects with long lead times ( running for 15-20 years ) and even a strong downturn in available credits on the financial markets won't have much effect. These projects will proceed according to schedule. These would be high tech projects requiring highly skilled personnel ( see below ). Example: In 2009 Shell signed a 15 year newbuilding contract with Samsung in Korea. In April 2010 Samsung received the first order for a purpose built LNG-FPSO to be delivered in 2013. It's expected Shell will order up to 10 new LNG-FPSOs, at about USD 5 billion each ( 5.000 million ) [ LOA 490 metres, width 74 metres ]. The possible lay-offs of personnel in times of "crisis" are sometimes in reality a re-structuring of the workforce. The employers get rid of some "redundancies", while at the same time hiring more educated and skillful people. If we would know what kinds of people were being sacked, it would probably be clear that these were mostly "non-employable". In other words the "skills ladder" is getting little bit top heavy, also offshore. We should, however be aware, that all the time / every day writing, reading, hearing about the Economic Crisis can create a self-fulfilling prognosis. Now when good news starts to surface may be we have another better self-fulfilling prognosis. Job Outlook for 2011A global drilling boom is expected to start now ( 2011 ). Because it's getting more difficult to find new oil reserves the "Oil Majors" have realized they must spend more to keep up their production.Oilfield services providers and subsea equipment producers / rental companies will be the first to benefit from the expansion. This is expected to continue until 2015. The main reason is the rising oil prices. Go to the listings below and check vacancy lists for each listing to find the new jobs. Statistical confusion ?When looking at, for instance employment figures, one sometimes forgets what the situation was 6 months or 12 months before.In US employment statistics gas plant operators and refinery employees are part of the production sector while wellhead pumpers and gas compressors and pumping station operators come under the transportation and material moving sector. When looking at oil and gas extraction employment numbers these have been rising on a year to year basis. July 2009 employment figures showed slightly more than corresponding employment number in 2008. And July 2009 showed close to 1.5 times more jobs than in December 2003. Expected long term changes.A longer term change in the worldwide "promotion ladder" can be expected. Traditionally this has started from a roustabout via roughneck to driller and occasionally all the way to Offshore Installation Manager ( OIM ) - see diagram to the right. This will in the future be broken after roughneck / floorhand, or may be after Derrickman, as new rigs are equipped with PC-controlled drilling (Parallel with this there is a tendency to try to automate many processes, which goes well together with computer control. The automation will in the long term further reduce the number of roustabouts and roughnecks. There is, in connection to a patent application, a long detailed technical description of a automated rig drilling control management system. You need some geophysical / drilling technique /computer knowledge to fully understand the text. There is an overview article, written in somewhat more simple language, of automated drilling control from a remote drilling expert centre. Drilling Fluid ( "mud" ) systems have traditionally been manually mixed and controlled. There has been ( in 2008 ) experimental use of automated mixing control [ This requires college / university level graduates to be trained through a "multilayered sandwich" model training scheme. The new training schemes copies in fact the ship cadet training where classroom training alternates with actual work practice, i.e. practical drilling on a working rig and/or simulator training. For this kind of drilling control, manual work as roustabout / roughneck isn't relevant any more. Even many American university graduates need higher proficiency in mathematics and English. There is a tendency developing of possibly reducing offshore personnel by cross-training technicians at those service companies taking part in the digital control process - at an onshore location. This points to a possible goal in the future of unmanned automated offshore rigs remotely controlled from ashore. During 2000-2009 total 41 highly automated oil rigs were put into operation ( Gulf of Mexico ). By 2012 there will be at least 93 new units with increased automation. Usually it's older mechanical shallow water oil rigs that are the first to be taken out of operation. The highly automated units are mostly employed with deepwater drilling. [ source: Marine News, August, 2009 ]. When the day rates are high and cost of investment high as well, there's usually a great hurry to get the rig unit start earning. Often the software onboard isn't adequately tested before each unit is put into operation. This introduces new risks and new problems in the offshore work. A Norwegian "think tank" group has warned oil companies world wide that offshore oil rigs are highly vulnerable to hacking as they shift to unmanned robot [ oil drilling ] platforms. Disturbances of remote drilling control in the North Sea has already been observed due to computer viruses. This opens up a new field for computer security professionals. As the number of partly or fully automated drilling units increase both in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea at least one computer security / problem finding professional will be continuously needed present on each of these rigs. |
Offshore
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↓ ↓ Roughneck Floorman / Floorhand ↓ ↓ Derrick Man ↓ ↓ Assistant Driller ↓ ↓ Driller ↓ ↓ Supervisor ↓ ↓ Night Pusher / Tour Pusher / Tool Pusher ↓ ↓ Offshore Installation Manager ( OIM ) Total 20 + years |


Please note 1: Jobs Available are changing all the time. I recommend you come back every one to two weeks and check job listings. Go to the job listings on each website below and check for new opportunities. Positions listed indicate the kind of jobs one usually finds on each website. It's very easy if you add this page to your "Favourites" (IE) or "Bookmarks" (Firefox). The links on this page leads to several thousand open vacancies. Please note 2: When the recruiting agent have an on-line application form, you must use it - if you don't, your application goes straight into the waste basket. If you find a suitable vacancy with an agent / employer who have an office in your own country - get the address from the "Contact" page and apply in person. This is always the best way. Please note 3: None of the listed recruiting agents on this page asks for any placement fee - neither in advance nor later. Job seekers should not have to pay to be able to apply for a job. Neither should they have to pay anything to get a job. One should always get a job on merit / experience / skills only, not because one happens to have extra cash available. Please note 4: Every link on this page opens in a new window. If your "Pop-up killer" is too efficient it can also stop new windows. When this happens, please press "Ctrl" and click on the link you want. Advice on Working OffshorePlease note 5: Basic Seafarer course is not valid offshore. For offshore employment everybody must have special Offshore Survival ("BOSIET"), Fire-fighting and Medical Certificates. Usually agent or employer can advice further where to get these in a specific country.
With the increase of floating drilling and production units there is now an increasing grey area where it's not always clear whether to apply STCW-95 or offshore certification rules. As a "rule of thumb" one can say, if a floating unit is classified as a ship ( for instance drilling ship ) STCW AND OFFSHORE certificates are required. If it's not classified as a ship ( for instance "MODU" ) only offshore certificates are mandatory and work contracts are individual, not ITF based (see below). For income tax purposes UK Court of Appeals decided in 2003 two ( self propelled ?) jack-up rigs in the North Sea were ships within the meaning of English ( British ) law. Both rigs were registered as ships with the Panamanian registry. They had tonnage and loadline certificates and they had to comply, for instance, with both GMDSS and MARPOL. Specific training and certification requirements can vary by geographical location according to local requirements and regulations. It's therefore necessary to apply only to suitable vacancies and to clearly specify what certificates you have.
A roughneck ( Floorhand ) is the entry level position at an oil rig's drilling section, a drill deck worker with some experience, may be as roustabout. A rigger is: "anyone who attaches or detaches lifting equipment to loads or lifting devices" on fixed offshore platforms. To find and get a job on oil rig as roustabout or rough neck it's easiest - if it's possible for you - to appear personally at the agent's / employer's office and apply directly. Entry level jobs are seldom advertised on the Internet - there are so many applicants. From among applicants without previous offshore experience the preferred candidates are individuals with a technical work background, i.e. several years experience as fitters, certified welders, navigators, engineers, electricians, and/or mechanics. |
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Offshore Salary ExamplesOffshore salaries ( wages ) are calculated and based on a 84 hrs work week, i.e. 12 hrs per day 7 days per week. When the job listings give a day rate you won't get paid when you relax at home. If the day rate is USD 300 and rotation two weeks on / two weeks off, you get about 15 x 300 = USD 4.500 per month.Because the offshore salaries / day rates are calculated on a 84 hour work week overtime isn't paid offshore - it's of course done but no extra compensation. From a salary viewpoint there's no difference in working on a Sunday or Holiday afternoon or, for instance, on a Thursday afternoon. Many employees offshore are being turned into sub-contractors. This means mostly short time contracts with a day rate pay. Each sub-contractor is then individually and personally responsible for his own taxes, social security, pension fund, insurance etc. Note that the actual salary paid a certain person depends very much on number of years offshore, his/her actual work experience, and the geographical location of the job site. One UK £ ( GBP ) equals about 1.2 € ( Euro ) or about 1.6 USD, one € (Euro) equals about 1.4 USD ( September 2011 ). A driller in the North Sea could expect to earn UK £ 37.000-47.000 per year (2008); in October 2009 a deepwater driller with 6 + years experience was offered £ 80.000 per year ( about 130.000 USD per year ). Roustabouts can start at about UK £ 18.000 per year and with a few years experience come up to about UK £ 22.000 per year. A roughneck, who already have previous experience as roustabout can on his promotion expect about UK £ 25.000 per year. More examples from vacancy lists: - Electrician - North Sea, £ 30.000 + per year - Electronic Technician - North Sea, £ 36.000 + per year - Piping Engineer - North Sea, £ 40-60 per hour Salaries offered in 2010: - Diving Supervisor - Kazakhstan, £ dayrate 535 ( per day worked ); Nigeria (March 2010) USD 1.000 ( Flights & Accommodation incl. ), trips offshore only. - Barge / AHTS Master - Nigeria / Angola - USD 500 per day - Chief Engineer, AHTS / Pipelay Barge - Nigeria /Angola - USD 490 per day - Chief Officer, AHTS or Pipelay Barge - Nigeria / Angola - USD 290 per day Salaries offered in 2011: Rigging Supervisor, North Sea, £ 300 per day, Master, Gulf of Mexico, 800 - 1.000 USD per day, Chief Engineer, AHTS, £ 50.000 per annum, Second Engineer, North Sea, FPSO, £ 45.000 per annum, Chief Officer, Deep Sea, £ 40.000 per annum. |
Get UK national average salary rates in UK £ per year for different positions in the Offshore Oil Gas Industry sector. On Australian oil rigs a roustabout's salary ranges between Australian $ 55-70.000 per year ( about US $ 3.500-4.500 per month ). Offshore Employment OpportunitiesPlease note: All links on this page opens in a new window. If your "Pop-up killer" is too efficient it can also stop new windows. When this happens, please press "Ctrl" and click on the link you want.
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Maritime Job Search Powered by Google |
Deck and engine crew should look also on Cruise Liner Job Links and Cargo Ship Job Links. Land based jobs are on Marine-Maritime Job Links page, including marine engineering jobs. On the same page you find also employment links to the major oil companies: Aramco, Chevron, BP, Shell, etc. For marine personnel there are occasional opportunities on emergency response and rescue vessels. Are you a senior marine engineer ? Read Marine Engineers and Cancer and/or Mesothelioma Incidence in Europe. Are you still searching for your "dream job" ? If you try my job search engine, type as specific job description as possible. Example: trainee offshore directional driller job west africa. Include the word "job" or "employment", otherwise the search engine doesn't "know" you are looking for a job. When you click on "Search" the search engine will check over 200 vacancy lists at all companies listed here. If you don't find what you look for today, come back next week or the week after. There is a new vacancy every day somewhere in the world. If you hesitate on how to write your CV ( résumé ) go to "How to Write a Maritime Job Application". Everything is not as such directly applicable to offshore work applications, but you can still get some usable advice and tips. The worst and longest running employment scam in the offshore oil sector has been active since year 2000. They have been known to offer offshore oil rig jobs to available workers also in Asia. There are also other money scams, targeting not only seamen but also offshore professionals. These have been running with increased activity since 2007. May be because there are so many hopeful candidates who do not know enough about offshore employment requirements and recruiting procedures. See Don Pedro's Nigerian and Other Employment-Money Scam Examples. Languages available: |
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