Salaries in oil drilling industry

Roustabout Salary

Roustabouts, are general laborers doing every kind of manual labor on oil rigs like lifting, carrying, moving around different mechanisms, cleaning and painting everything that needs to be painted on an offshore oil rig. Since oil rig is essentially metal structure, there's always much to paint. In fact, Roustabouts do every type of manual work nobody else wants to do. This is the lowest rung position on the drilling deck, and according to BrassMein the salary for that position rage between $US 45,000 and $US 55,000 a year, depending on many factors.

The other salaries on offshore oil platforms:

According to the same source, the other positions on oil rigs normally earn:

• Steward - $US 45,000 per year. This is another low skill position on oil rigs, whose responsibilities include cleaning living areas and kitchen and helping wherever needed in catering. May become a cook or even a camp boss, if can boast good communication skills and capable of organizing people.
• Welder, needs certification, salary is around $US 60,000
• Radio Operator - $US 60,000
• Rig Medic - up to $US 70,000
• Scaffolders, earning potential for this position is up to $US 60,000 per year.
• RSTC (Rig Safety and Training Coordinator) - $US 80,000 a year. Very good, considering this is an entry level position.
• Mud Engineer, entry level oil rig job requiring degree. Offers the salary of $US 70,000 - $US 80,000
• Storeman - Salary: $US 60,000.
• Motorman is subordinated to Mechanic, earns the annual salary of around $US 58,000.
• Rig Electrician, repairs and maintains everything electrical aboard oil drilling installation. Salary: $US 65,000 per year.

Specialties involved in oil & gas production process on offshore oil rigs

Oil production industry needs people with different skills, training, and educational backgrounds to have the oil production running. Oil exploration (drilling for oil deposits) is headed by petroleum geologist or a geophysicist. The high end specialists include: Seismic Data Processors, Piping Engineers, Drill Engineers, RIG Superintendents, Mud Loggers, Instrument Supervisors, ROV Specialists.

Other professionals with educational background in geology or geophysics involved include: mineralogists, stratigraphers, photogeologists, geophysical prospectors, gravity and seismic prospecting observers, and other. Other professionals that comprise the crew are surveyors, drafters, lease buyers. Petroleum engineers are hired to plan and supervise the actual process of oil drilling, development and maintenance of oil wells. Drilling crews and oil rigs are being supervised by Drilling Superintendents (otherwise called Toolpushers).

Low end specialists on oil rigging deck include Rotary Drillers, Rotary Rig Engine Operators, Derrick Operators (Derrickman), and Roughnecks whose other less widely known job title is Rotary Driller Helpers. The other trades involved are Pumpers and Pumper Helpers, Valve Switchers, Gaugers, Treaters, Well Testers. Other skilled oil field workers: oil well cementers, acidizers, perforator operators, sample-taker operators, well pullers.

Maintenance workers and professionals: welders, pipefitters, electricians, machinists.

Support personnel that helps to keep the drilling platforms, drillships, crewboats, barges, and helicopters operable include radio operators, cooks, sailors, and helicopter pilots.

The Buzzle provides the following information about the salaries of most known entry level positions employed on offshore oil rigs:

• dishwashers get paid $US 700 per week
• Roustabout - $US 54,000 per year
• Welder - $US 62,000
• Maintenance Roustabout - $US 47,000
• Welder - $US 62,000
• Radio Operators - $US 62,000
• Painter - $US 57,000
• Mud Engineer - $US 72,500
• Medic - $US 69,000
• Storeman - $US 59,000 per annum

Offshore oil rigs offer probably the best salaries among all industries, besides the entertainment gambling. But outsider would be probably astonished to discover that quite a number of positions, including some of the high-end, never require even college diploma, such as for example toolpusher (oil rig boss). Anyway, working on offshore oil rigs in whatever capacity requires quite an array of certifications available from different courses and quick instruction/training programs, starting from a most habitual Offshore Survival Certificate or IADC, and ending with training and certification in process/chemical plant operations, if you are employed as a platform operator.

The salary of Steward

The same as with the rest of rig workers, the Steward's salary varies from rig to rig, and can be adjusted to either side depending on the skills, productivity, certifications, and years of experience in the industry.

Oil rig Steward catering job deals with low end catering responsibilities in living/recreation area and in the kitchen, and it is less dangerous to health and life, because in is indoors. According to another oil career advisor the salary of Steward or Stewardess the fluctuates between $US 20,000 or $US 30,000. The other source says that Steward's salary may go up to $US 45,000 per year (mentioned in the article named 5 Entry Level Oil Rig Jobs That Don't Require Experience.

Steward salary in the North Sea, UK sector. If you are hired on offshore oil rigs in the UK sector of the North Sea your salary adheres to the UK laws and rules, because in fact you're working at the territory of Great Britain, which means the salary you get is subject to the UK taxes. From the other hand such rig worker is eligible for claiming his or her tax free £UK 6475. For more information consult your UK Tax Professional Advisor.

Steward jobs and salaries on Oil Rigs in Norway is both higher than in other countries and locations, but that's not all. Working on Norwegian offshore oil rigs has been admitted as the safest from among the offshore drilling installations in the other jurisdictions. But the safety standards didn't come in one day, especially considering that when decades age American experts on oil production were invited to Norway to assist in getting the nation's offshore oil drilling industry running, they were absolutely not interested in spending foreign investors' money on implementation of costly safety infrastructure and spending on safety training that was not at the time required by the local laws. It's the merit of trade union movement that these high standards of safety ultimately were adopted and admitted mandatory.