RigJoiner.com
Get your entry level galley hands position on oil fields of Norway
Job search
Choose location:
Choose position:

Drilling and Non-drilling jobs on offshore oil rigs

Tips and advice on getting entry level offshore oil rig job for the inexperienced

Training & Certifications For Greenhand Job Seekers

If you are someone contemplating opportunities of earning one of those really big salaries on oil rigs, in fact you don't need any education or prolonged specialized training to qualify for entry level job like roustabout, or vacancy of a steward on offshore oil rigs, or that of a galleyhand. Oil & gas is the industry where entry level workers get instructed and complete only brief courses right on the employment site, and get all the necessary certifications within one week's time. The other have both paid and free basic certification courses, where every wishing person can get certifications like OPITO approved BOSIET. Any of the applicable certifications will be regarded as advantage, when people from an oil company HR department review your CV to shortlist possible successful candidates for interview.

This would be useful to be born in mind still at the stage of your making steps towards pursuing a career on oil rigs aiming to land your very first entry level job on an offshore platform. Even if requirements vary not only from one country to another, but even from an oil exploration company or even a specific oil rig to the next one, just the fact you cared to gather the information and to take practical step to win your entry level vacancy may turn out crucial for employment or on the contrary rejecting you CV even without any interview.

Besides BOSIET you could go through HUET (UK, Denmark, Netherlands) or care to obtain TWIC card, if you are seriously regarding to work as oil rig worker on oil rigs off shore USA. TWIC program is jointly run by the US Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration. To obtain TWIC card, individuals have to have sufficiently good criminal record.

Another entry level job seeker without experience said he wanted to try working on oil rigs, still never possessing either exceptional physical strength as required for Roustabout, or having any oil drilling related training or experience of working offshore. Instead he believed he was not bad in cooking, though not a professional chef. There are opportunities for such people on offshore oil rigs either, provided that person is strongly motivated.

You'll be surprised, but a person of the sort might get his/her first entry-level job on offshore oil rigs absolutely smoothly, even considering he's without any professional experience at all. Cook or not cook, but galley hand position is what such applicant can absolutely count for. Once your foot is in the door, be responsible, work hard, obey all orders, and watch out for advancement opportunities. With your ambitions and the right attitude you could well become a night baker, for example, very soon. Chef, or even camp boss could be positions to compete for in the future.

I have to say I'm totally new to oil extraction branch of petroleum industry, to say nothing about working on offshore oil rigs, and all my information comes from the Internet only. I don't have any prior hands on or on site experience. So far all my experience is purely theoretical. I visited several websites that position themselves as employment search resources, and they claim they could help physically strong and healthy men like me to find entry level job on oilfields. That's nice, but they all are membership sites and ask for a fee to start using them meaning it's possible to find oil rig job online using their semi automated service.

But here goes my question: what would be the best way for inexperienced individual like me to go so I would get an entry level position on offshore oil platforms?

I can't boast I'm one of those tough guys called roughnecks that are for hard manual labor. I would prefer a job that is less physically demanding and cleaner. For example in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking and I cook very well, indeed, though I'm not a trained cook with diploma. Would be grateful for every piece of advice and feedback, hopefully from experts.

How much does a galley hand make offshore?

The salary of a galley hand may vary from employer to employer, but generally it fluctuates near the mark of $US 7-8 per hour, with overtime paid twice as much. The duration of a shift is normally 14 days in a row, followed by the same amount of the days off, the normal length of working day is 12 hours. The job of galley hand on the offshore oil rigs can't be called exhausting, the more so risky, but it still requires physical endurance and ability to work long hours without slowing down.

Algarve Drilling & Training Consultants (ADTC)

As a leading oilfield consultancy, providing resource solutions, ADTC teaches oil drilling crews, both onshore and offshore, to work in a safe and efficient manner. The company is based in Portugal.

Petrobras - Brazil,

Petrobras - Brazil, is looking for Supervisor of Oil Drilling Rig (Entry Level) Brazil. Supervisors of Entry-level on drilling rig can be hired into Petrobras in the Brazil are typically recent graduates from college.

Oil & gas companies that hire in South Louisiana: Petro Log (the mudlogging company that accounts for having logged over 8,000 offshore and onshore oil wells in the locations such as the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Mississippi), AXXIS Drilling, Grey Wolf, Frank's Casing, Offshore Energies, Weatherford.

Related Jobs: Radio Operator On Oil Rigs
What does an oil rig radio operator do, you ask? Responsibilities of Offshore Oil Rig Radio Operator are quite numerous. This crew member is obligated, not limited to, though:
  • Continuously ensure proper operation of the equipment in the radio room on the oil rig
  • Keep radio room and all the equipment in orderly manner
  • Provide weather reporting to helicopter pilots, maintain SAR monitoring
  • Relay helicopter pilot messages
  • Be responsible for helicopter logistics
  • Maintain radio connection with helicopters and maritime installations and vessels in the area
  • Watch, receive, and report emergency radio calls to the Master
  • Operate the radios installed in the radio room
  • Ensure that the scheduled maintenance and routine servicing operations of radio equipment is performed according to the checklist
  • Provide assistance to oil rig administration whenever such assistance on administrative matters could be available from his behalf
  • Keep weather observations and provide reports and weather alerts
  • Maintain POB record and logs
  • Distribute e-mail messages as required
  • Maintain radio connection with shore bases
  • Watch out for distress calls by monitoring international distress frequencies, and react quickly, when received
  • In case of emergencies ensure the connection with onshore bases and coordination centers
  • Conduct weekly checks on emergency batteries
  • Advises supply vessels of helicopter translocation
  • Helps Electronics Technician to troubleshoot radio equipment and repair it according to his abilities

Position of radio operator is one of the most attractive jobs on oil rigs that doesn't require a person doing it to be exceptionally strong physically and be able to withstand harsh weather influence and stay close to different risky places that might be dangerous to one's health, if not life at times. The salary is very good, meanwhile. Radio operators on offshore oil rigs earn salaries around $US 43,000 - $US 62,000 per year.

Good communication skills for this position are important, both by radio and in direct communication, because radio operator is a key crew member that ensures good communication between different crew members. Therefore good chances are to get promoted to one of administration roles aboard oil drilling platform.

Besides namely operating radio and keeping radio room orderly and clean, the other duties associated with the job of radio operator on offshore oil rigs, this person deals with staying and getting ready for handling different emergency situations and logistic. The undisputable advantage of this rig job is that you work 2 weeks offshore and then get a 3 weeks long leave on land. Though requiring attention, the job does not require physical endurance. With lots of downtime, from the other hand, radio operator needs to listen to the radio constantly, which is very boring, and this is disadvantage of this position on oil rigs.

Recent Radio Operator job postings in United States:

  • Oil Spill Responder. Employer: GLOBAL DIVING & SALVAGE INC. Job location: Seattle, WA

Roustabout prospects

Working as a greenhand roustabout on offshore oil rigs requires certain mandatory certifications and some simple training, but these are offered normally by the oil drilling contractors themselves for people their recruiters have shortlisted. The Greenhands will normally be instructed and trained by hands on method. After attending several days long courses the enrollees will apply for certification and hopefully get one or several. If candidate already has one, like BOSIET, his chances to get hired will increase compared to the rest, but you may be asked to prove you really have them before actually being allowed to start working. The value for offshore entry level roustabout having additional certification for company lies in possibility to engage such worker to servicing more operations or mechanisms just only because he can demonstrate he complies with safe behavior rules knowledge and, moreover, adheres to them. The more operations a hand work laborer can be used in, the more value for the company he has. This may also result in higher salary, than other greenhands (deckhands) in the same category make.

Hot vacancies for roustabouts:

  • Roustabouts required for a temporary contract in the North Sea. Candidates e-mail your CV to fromhome2007@ya.ru
  • Roustabout jobs - Rig Jobs For Freshers. English speaking workers will be hired for roustabout jobs in Canada, US, Australia, and the UK (offshore Aberdeen). Alberta in Canada is still short of individuals capable to work in Assistant Roustabout positions. $US 45-50K per year salary for unskilled laborers that qualify. No drug abusers, please. Certifications like BOSIET are required, but will be paid by employer.

Other positions

  • Roustabout - unskilled laborer, assisting in the drilling process
  • Roughneck - skilled laborer, otherwise known as Oil Driller's Helper
  • Driller - oversees oil drilling process
  • Scuba Divers
  • Reservoir engineer - designs wells and optimizes drill sites during oil exploratory drilling.
  • Mud Loggers, Mud Engineers
  • Motorman jobs for Indian crew, crew oil jobs in India available. Duties, associated with this offshore rig vacancy: must have good English knowledge and be able to provide on site training for Roustabouts and Roughnecks. The main responsibility: maintenance and lubrication of machinery, perform ongoing repairs of motors
  • Motorman, job location: Shukrawar peth in Benin, salary negotiable
  • Subsea Supervisor with DST (Bangalore, KA)
  • Foremen/Welder to work in Mumbai
  • Chef jobs on oil rigs, Australia, Perth
  • Galley Hands, Brazil and worldwide
  • Rope access jobs, Trinidad & Tobago and worldwide
Chef jobs on oil rigs, Australia

In spite of the general economic slowdown, for the jobseekers looking for employment on oil rigs, especially offhore Australia, the opportunities are still growing. The reason is the aging of the existing workforce in the field, which in the next decade will imminently result in massive retirement of skilled oil exploration personnel. Just imagine, over fifty percent of the existing oil rig workers, employees in catering, administration staff and high skilled engineers are going to retire, leaving variety of openings to be filled, and that's a big concern for the world oil and gas industry.

Experts dedicated this review to jobs in catering, such as chefs for a specific area of the offshore Australia. Lead Cook, Chef Head Cook, or simply Chef, is an important and exceptionally well salaried positions belonging to non-drilling oil rig jobs. This is one of those positions on offshore oil rigs of Australia, where prior experience of working on oil rigs is not necessary at all, but previously working in a position of head cook is, of course, necessary. That should be high class specialist capable to supervise meals preparation for the entire crew and ensure that the quality of the food served is comparable to fashion restaurants or five star hotels. Must be an individual with strong management skills, since another of that person responsibilities is managing the proper operation of the kitchen department and all staff working there. Individuals with little skills or lacking managerial experience have opportunity to get hired either with great prospect for advancement. You may get hired and start as a Night Cook, Assistant Cook, Night Baker, or even as a simple Galley Hand and grow up from the bottom - the people with abilities and the right attitude get promoted quickly in the oil rigs, be it in Australia, Norway, USA, or even Russia.

Increasing one's chances of getting employed on offshore platforms

Of course, when you are looking for a new job, the walk-in method may be very beneficial, but in such highly competitive workforce market as oil and gas, that sounds rather problematic, since oil rigs are to the bigger extent than the other industries is a secluded field with much of nepotism being it's characteristic feature. Still, there's a way to overcome the obstacle by using online resumeé service. The point is that in their search for the right staff, recruiters for oil vacancies visit the sites of personal advertisements on a regular basis. They even create accounts of their companies on such sites as well. It's obvious advantage, if you choose to use one of such online resumeé writing/posting services. They are capable not just to help an applicant for oil rig job vacancy to compose good resumeé, but for a small fee will also e-mail it to the HR departments of all known oil drilling contractors throughout the world. The job location is not an issue, since the majority of oil rigging companies will pay travel expenses to the people that they hire. Visiting discussion forums is also useful. Both oil job seekers and headhunters for good fits for working on offshore platforms not infrequently are their contributors either.

Oil rigs & oil rig job news

In February 2003 a part of the Iranian offshore oil drilling platform collapsed and went under the water during its installation in the Persian Gulf in the South Pars oil field. After being banned by the international community from using other countries' advanced oil and gas exploration the country had to rely upon their own-built oil drilling units. Nevertheless, Iran's authorities asked for the foreign help in retrieving the huge structure from the 90 meters depth where it's lying on the sea bed.

Prosafe needs more offshore accommodation support rigs from oil drilling contractors for operations in the North Sea and Latin America. The demand rose because of a big attempt to recover more oil from the old wells as well as more projects to drill for oil offshore Norway.

The other news will cover UK's northern North Sea Thistle field, Transocean ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rigs, working on oil platforms offshore Nigeria, Tullow Oil plans of drilling offshore West Africa, including Mauritania, Jubilee field offshore Ghana, Suriname, in Latin America (offshore Uruguay), and to continue with the first well they operate offshore Norway on the Mantra prospect.

Did you hear about Rig Locator? It's a useful online resource that provides information about oil rigs in Canada, their drilling activities and operators like Encana Corporation, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Cenovus Energy Inc., Progress Energy Canada Ltd. Find out what's happening in oilfields of AB, SK, British Columbia, MB, NT, YT, QC, all areas are covered. Stay up to date today with Rig Locator! Review is to be posted soon.

tags: Acker Drill Company vacancies, Fox Oil Drilling Company hiring, Diamond Offshore Drilling contract services, drilling rig jobs, drilling rig companies in PA, drilling rig companies in Saskatchewan, Red Deer, drilling rig companies in Alberta, California, Wyoming, drilling rig companies in India hiring new entry level

RigJoiner