Working on offshore rigs

Employment on offshore production platforms, drillships, FPSO's, MODU's.

Because of outstanding salaries in offshore industry, received by practically every position aboard sea-based oil drilling facilities, the competition for every offshore job there is fierce as well. It's specialized recruiters (offshore crewing companies), drilling contractors, and offshore catering contractors, who entry level and low end rigger jobs can be found with. Big oil companies like British Petroleum or Exxon Mobil never do the drilling for themselves and never hire low end and even middle segment offshore personnel. It's contractors and subcontractors who would normally hire Roustabouts, Roughnecks, Offshore welders and welder Divers, Rope Access Technicians, Electricians, Motorhands, Derrickman, Painters, Pipefitters, Assistant Drillers and Drillers, mud loggers and mud Engineers, Toolpusher, catering Department staff like Camp Boss, Chef, Cooks, Assistant Cooks, Night Backers, Stewards, Galleyhands, as well as auxiliary trades, supervisory position holders, managers, and fill administrative job openings.

Before you start to search for your very first entry level offshore vacancy, it is worthwhile to find out and get a clear understanding, which companies are involved in offshore oil production/exploration and which of them to deal within the terms of getting offshore employment. Basically, these energy related oil companies fall into 3 categories:

1. The so called majors, oilfield operators, are the biggest world's corporations that hold licenses from governments to drill for offshore oil reserves and set up oil and gas production platforms
2. Oil drilling contractors like Transocean, Diamond Drilling etc. that drill for oil on contract basis with oilfield operators (corporations like BP, Shell, Saudi Aramco etc.)
3. Different servicing and services providing companies that provide all kinds of support to oil companies from the first two categories. This group include catering, janitorial, food and supplies providing companies, offshore helicopter transportation services providers, construction firms, rigging equipment maintenance and servicing providers, well servicing specialist firms and many more. These latter too provide lots of offshore jobs that could serve as bridgehead for switching over to real offshore oil drilling jobs in order to pursue so much promising and truly lucrative career in the offshore sector of energy industry.

Certain professional backgrounds do get preferences from the behalf of offshore industry employers and recruiters in the course of the decision making whether to hire them or not as entry level employees or workers. If you're someone with the past experience of marine work as a sailor, a retired navy officer, have worked in construction, especially at the yards constructing the offshore oil drilling facilities to further be installed at seas, or used to work in whatever position on continental oilfields for companies that drill for oil or service oil production wells at every stage up to completion, then you're automatically given preference over the other greenhand applicants for the same entry level no direct prior experience position on offshore oil rig as unskilled laborer or worker (like Roustabout, Deckhand, Painter, Galleyhand etc. All these are entry level offshore jobs that do not require any immediate prior experience, just brief workplace instruction and all required offshore safety and survival courses.

If this is not the case, and if the only assets as a greenhand applicant you could realistically boast are your bodily strength, endurance, quick reaction, deftness and dexterity, coupled with ambition, proper motivation, willingness to learn things quickly and uncurbed enthusiasm, you still have chances. You could be selected to get hired as Roustabout and learn new skills in the course of working consecutively in each of the more skilled positions slowly working your way up career path (Roughneck, Assistant Driller, Assistant Offshore Crane Operator, Derrickman etc. - up to Toolpusher or Rig Manager), there is no cap for people wishing to work hard for big remuneration and pursue their offshore career. The more experience you obtain, the bigger salary per year you receive.

It could be worthwhile for some people to try the following alternative, described by another contributor to this oil job resource. Especially this way could turn out handy and efficient for aspiring offshore workers living in one of the the Gulf states (Texas, Louisiana). That's the place in the USA, stuffed with both onshore and offshore oil production/drilling platforms. You pay attention to each kind of them, but especially to offshore platforms near shore that extract oil in shallow waters. It's not infrequent that drilling contractors operating those facilities announce hiring of temporary personnel, complete crews of roustabouts for completing a specific mission aboard offshore oil rigs. They are paid daily wages and the job they do really do not require any prior experience. It's just simple dirty scraping/cleaning/rust removal/painting/loading/unloading etc. work. As soon as the mission is over, the crews get immediately dismissed and transported to the shore. Its's not the pay that you are after in such temporary employment, but rather the eligibility to state in your resumé later on that you do have notion what it's like to live and work on offshore platform. Thus you have your chances for getting permanent offshore job increased dramatically.