Getting into offshore work
 

This is to anyone with experience working offshore (or onshore for that matter...) in the oil & gas industry. I know you will have been asked a million times.

Basically, I'm going to be working offshore for my employer (not an oil & gas co., just a company contracted to do some work) over the next few weeks, and while I'm there I, quite cheekily, thought I would see what options might be available in terms of employment with other companies. I'm relatively happy with how my job is going and the progress I'm making, but I'm always open to new challenges. My main issue with what I do now is how laid back it is in terms of professionalism. The standard really isn't that high, and I like to take my work seriously and do it as well as possible in terms of speed, quality and the fact I can be relied upon. I think I'd be well suited to an environment where it is nothing but work for, say, two weeks at a time and then you pack your stuff and go home. I have no commitments either.

I thought I might be able to get my foot in the door to an entry-level position with an oil & gas co. which would no doubt pay more than my current job. I would literally do anything with the potential to progress. Any ideas what might be the best way to go about this or what would be the best thing to get into?

Hello! twelve years at it. :)

Offshore's p1sh, the work isn't steady I've been off five months now and only just got another job a few weeks ago but I'm on standy by (yes I'm actually getting paid for sitting at home ripping the head off of it) 'but' I'm only getting paid 50% of what I should be.

What is it you actually do for a living anyway? Are you a tradesman, Plater, Pipefitter etc etc?

Just now is coming into a busy time of the year for offshore (shut down season) but it only lasts through the summer months till October or November if your lucky.

If you have a steady job with a decent wage I would stay put TBH.

I've been thinking of doing this...
I'm a refrigeration and air- conditioning engineer and level 3 17th edition spark.... Anyone know of anything out there I could do?

Not in that line of work I'm afraid, I'm more in the construction side of things.

Ohhh been looking for a while even at rig work not much I can find

Been offshore 18 years never been out of work and seen the world,.

A fair few years ago i looked into getting into being a offshore diver, the mrs liked the idea of the money but i wasnt keen on living in a bubble

What you do mate??

Same here, my company are installing chillers for the new bp offices in Azerbaijan. Every few weeks I go out for a week or so to push the job along and start commissioning. Last time I was there I was talking to the main bp guy for that sector about getting on the rigs. Around 10-15k a month supposedly for all fridge plant maintenance. All the English contracts guys keep telling me to pack up and get out in the world.

I'm in the same boat as the op. I like my job how it is, take pride in my work and don't like the quality of workmanship out there.

Going back out there next week for 10 days and a promised night out with the bp guy. gonna sit down and haveba good chat with him whilst enjoying a lap dance.:thumb:t

10-15k a month!!!!! WOW!!!! I have all my fridge qualifications
NVQ level 2, 2079 gas handling etc... Plus come June level 3 spark and 17th edition I would be there!!! Don't know where to start tho getting on the Riggs... That great money amazing money for just maintenance engineering!!

10k a month to service a fridge??? Im just a toolmaker but i reckon for that money i could learn how to press the de frost button :lol1::lol1:

I don't know the exact terms of it because it was only a brief chat whilst the chillers were being craned up. But I remember him saying its 6 months on and 6 months off. And it's a bit like prison.... 6 months on a sausage wagging oil rig and nowhere to go.:rolleyes: whether you are paid for the 6 months off is something for me to find out.

To give you an idea of why pay is sky high... Bp earn on average $83000 per MINUTE from pulling the oil out of the floor.

Also, sometime last year on the far west coast a gas pocket was discovered that is believed to be enough to feed Europe for the next 150 years. It remains untouched at present as there is a dispute as to who's land it's on.

Ha, if it was as easy as that I wouldn't have come home a few weeks ago.

Way I see it is in 21 years old... I've been in the industry since 16 so got good experience.. Earning that type of money set me up for life.. I could see the world and live the dream...
Friend of mine is a recovery diver he does 6weeks on 2weeks off does really well

If your intending on working in the North Sea I can tell you now you won't make 10-15k a month, no where near it infact.

i have worked offshore for 16 month and its by far the best job i have had. money is amazing compared to back on the beach. if u have ya air-con tickets get your c.v sent into tyco they do the h-vac out here on the forties and i no the lads clear £3600 for there 2 week trip and they hardly lift a finger. getting your foot in the door is the hardest part its defo who you know not what you no.

Agreed, as long as you have your papers, its down to who you know to get you in. If I weren't doing the job abroad right now, I wouldn't have it playing on my mind. And wouldn't of had offers whilst I was out there.

:lol1:

What is the demand for chartered civil engineers working in the oil/gas industry? :Suspiciou

glesgakiss whats your line of work?

I'm onshore at grangemouth ( i like going home at nights rather than weeks away )

£10-15k month is for working 30 days x 12 hrs remember = 360hrs (Normal working month = 150hrs) They would go home for a month and not earn anything so its really £10-15k for 2 months. Regardless, these are only short term contracts, you may get 1 trip, 2 trips, perhaps even 3 but its not a full time solution, just a quick fix and then searching for another position again. These are not permanent North Sea salaries, they're contractor rates in hell hole locations.

I work in the offshore oil and gas industry and it's pish being stuck offshore, 90% of the guys that work offshore hate it but are money trapped. You spend half your life on a rig in remote places, for the guys that say see the world, water looks like water, no matter where in the world you go, even when you do go to work on land, the locations are remote and in shi*hole countries, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia etc. Would you pay to go on holidays to these sh*tholes? No, most probably you wouldn't, there's no fun working in them either, believe me. Sticky hot or blisteringly cold and full of lazy, smelly, rude ill disciplined locals that at times you feel what you tell them goes in one ear and straight out the other without registering anything inbetween.

You often hear of only working 6 months of the year as a perk of the job, true, but you're also on an oil platform in the middle of nowhere for 6 months of the year. Think about that for a minute, you are literally spending HALF your life away from home and family working. Compare that to a Monday 9-5 job (46 x 37.5 = 1725hrs per year in work, 7011hrs out of work so around an 20%/80% split) Offshore (84hrs x 26wks = 2184hrs but then you also spend your 12hrs off time in work too so its a 50/50 split of 4368hrs/4368hrs) Quality of life when you look back, it's sh*t when you compare those figures, 20% of your time working a typical Monday 9-5 vs 50% of your time 'working' offshore. As to conditions, you are surrounded by 95% men, there's nothing to do, think prison system and it's not far off. Family life suffers aswell, it may not to begin with but you'll find a very high % of divorce rates offshore, the women just cant stick their men being away weeks and months at a time missing christmas, birthdays, wedding kiddies events etc etc

I still have to go offshore every now and again and I hate it with a passion, most people I go out with also hate it, countdown to chopper eve as soon as we arrive. My next trip away is to the ETAP on Friday, luckily just until the Monday tho. The money is pretty good though, it has to be, look at the pitfalls above with hours worked, time spent away from family and home etc but there's far more to life than £££.

I would say think pretty carefully if you want to go down this path. It's not all roses that many make it out to be. It's also a who you know not what you know industry, very very cliquey.

The above is just a flipside of the coin view, take from it what you will but as you can tell, I hate being stuck in the middle of the North Sea, should have stuck in at school and done something a lot more interesting :lol1:

I have a client who worked in the middle east as a pipe fitter and he said one of the main problems were the locals. He said you couldn't trust them in the slightest.

Having said that he only went for 6 month contract and did for about 15 years. He had some mild heart issue out there and was airlifted home and couldn't get a contract after that.

I had a neighbour who dived offshore in the middle east for a few years. He was earning very good money until he got the bends and was quite ill. After that the company he worked for wouldn't renew is contract. Money went tight, wife left, hanged himself in the shed about 18 months later.



Have one client who is a tanker captain. He is on a good deal of money but I don't think he likes it much. His wife was getting edgy about them going past the somali pirates so he took early retirement. Less than a year later his previous employer asked if he would do the LNG run from US to Wales (I think anyway) and he agreed. Again good money but I think he has a problem with the crew - mostly surly Pols.

I only ever had a few of trips out to Baku and Atyrau (Kaz) but in short, you tell them something, they nod their head, agree, and then go and do something completely different. There is no urgency, no enthusiasm, just so laid back and unprofessional it makes working alongside them a complete and utter ball ache.

Saying that, there are a lot of eejits working in the North Sea too. It's a profession where there is little or no education required, just a who you know, not what you know.

Couldn't agree more with this although there's now plenty contractors with core crew positions in he North Sea on the money talked about.

Really? Bearing in mind an OIM makes circa £140k a year I don't see how a a enrage joe can make circa £180? I know senior supervisors who don't even come close to that in the North Sea.

£10-15k every 2 months = £60-90k ;)

Although quoted as monthly, you have to take into account no pay whilst off so month on month off that £10-15k has to do them 2 months.

Not sure OIM are on £140k in the N.Sea though, pretty sure i spotted an OIM position on oil careers.com back in January with pay scale between £105-115k. (Salaried employee, not contracted)

We pay our guys £500 day rate in the North Sea which works out around £90k pa. (182 x £500) but they have no employee rights, pension, sick pay etc.

Most in the North Sea are earning quite a bit less than that though, depends on your trade obviously.

Good money can be earned on gas pipline projects here in the UK without going too far away lands. Welders are very good money as are engineers. Hours are long though and work is usually from March to Oct time. Last job I did I was on a guaranteed £1500/ week for 5 days plus any overtime. Accommodation is paid at £50/night on top.

Seems to fit with what I go through, March to Oct as much work/hours/days/weeks as you can deal with. After Oct it dries right up, sometimes I'll get the occasional trip or week in some place but nothing concrete.

Leo-RS, I wasn't sure how much OIMs were on so I gave it a generous figure, I would have thought they would have been on more than £105-115k though well especially the platform guys?

And I can tell you now I'm nowhere near £500 day rate either! :eek:

Although it does jump quite a bit when shut down season is in full swing and they are short of guys, but it dosen't take them long to knock it back again when things go quiet.

Dunk, What do you do?

I'm a Rigger in the construction side of things. Not the best of jobs, but then I wasn't the cleverest at School lol. :)