Anyone here work offshore?
If so what are the living conditions like? is the food good?
Might have to go offshore and would like to know
Anyone here work offshore?
If so what are the living conditions like? is the food good?
Might have to go offshore and would like to know
What sort of work do you do Kev?
I'm trying to get into the oil industry as a graduate engineer. Looking for graduate positions in design or offshore engineering. Been for one interview so far as a feild engineer
I think you have to share a room with some one, bunk bed. And toilet is shared by 2 rooms (4 people). I dont think it will be too nice to be honest!
Tonnie
Its not a country club... 12 hour shifts, lonely in the middle of nowhere.. There are facilities for R&R though but the biggest pressure is the mental strain. Plus it isnt inherently safe. And the money isnt all that really until you get much further up the ladder or get an overseas posting...then the money rolls in.
There is an article about it on BBC news - run a search for it mate - hope this helps.
If you want some particulars, all my family and mates and so on do it, although a good proportion got whacked by Piper Alpha and other chopper crashes. Things are much much safer these days - unless its an American rig - they are a bit more lax compared to the brit or other operators - well thats from a few different people I hear that from, I cannot correlate what they say about that.
Its a hard life mate. Say goodbye to either christmas or New Year too.
I work in the fabrication side of thing as it is now and am used to not getting xmas and new year.
Don't mind long shifts as I am working 10-13hrs at the mo (unpaid overtime too).
As long as the beds are comfy and the food is good, I don't mind much really
Beds are comfy. Ive been in them - they are fine. To be honest - anything is comfy if you have been humphing and grumphing for hours - guaranteed you should sleep well - unless your wearing a respirator if there is H2S environment issues...
Go for it. It wont be there for ever. I propose you try to wangle into a management or engineer training scheme - there arent enough drillers about ok - they are all aging - and not enough younger experienced ones coming through.
alex,
Do you know any companies that need graduate drillers in Aberdeen?
I'm working down south at the moment and its not that great! I need a graduate position, so I can build my future
Tonnie
Last edited by tmmollah; 22-09-2006 at 10:47.
Gaz F, Dai, Stu mitch are all on the rigs.
Mate is on them too.
says he loves it, worst thing is the 3 weeks offshore knowing he cant see his new kid
Originally Posted by alexjj
Jp will be pleased to hear that. He's a chef on the rigs
I'll start with accomadation
Theres a big difference between the drilling rigs and the platforms.
Drilling rigs
Small cramped often noisey rooms, shared with the guy on the opposite shift
If you're lucky or with somebody on the same shift if you're not.
Some rigs still have 4 man rooms, though I can only think of the Sedco 704 thats still in uk waters.
Toilets are mostly shared with the room next door, not usually a problem.
Some of the newer or bigger rigs will one toilet/shower per room.
There are still some rigs with communal toilets/showers, not many of those left in the UK now.
Food usually good if basic, lots of mince and tatties up north everything with chips down south. Similar standard to a works canteen if not better.
I will say that there has been a general improvement in catering in the last 18 months or so, some places the food is good enough to pay for if you understand me. Drilling rigs tend to have a better atmosphere than platforms
unless its one with American supervisors, they tend to be not very bright and shout a lot. No many of them left in the uk now thank fcuk.
Platforms
Rooms tend to very quiet and bigger that those on the rigs. Apart from the AUK i've never been on one with more than 2 guys in a room. toilets are either shared with the next room or just for your own use.
Food tends to be better than the rigs due to a higher budget.
More r and r facilities too.
All in all its agood life apart from the paperwork and some of the "safety" bollox you have to put up with. I've put safety in inverted commas for a reason. A lot of careers are being made on the backs of safety at the moment
, I'll just leave it at that. I will say that it is compared to some industries very safe. But the drilling company with the highest amount of fatalities in the UK over the last few years is also the one where you need a bit of paper to blow your nose.
Ooops I went off on a tangent there.
Tonnie do you mean drilling engineer?
The driller usually has big hands and a loud voice but doesn't usually have a degree, though I've met 2 over the years both with maths degrees.
tmmollah - check with some of the guys here. I know for a fact that for graduate drilling positions - Aberdeen Uni do a course there, my dad helped write a large part of it - and after that its fast track thereafter if you get into some of the majors. You can of course go the contracting route.. and believe me they are screaming for drillers. Not bad money so I hear
PS - am off to Baku next weekend, going to check out some of the Caspian and other BP interests...
Looking at the topsides and drilling areas - should be fun. The drive through Azerbaijan should take me past some of the worst environmental disaster areas, where some of the old well sites are from Soviet days - and you get a pretty good idea of how the area has been treated from an environmental perspective.
Dont know if anyone has ever seen the SEA of rigs and other installations just sitting there sometimes... just beggars belief.
Will take pics if anyone is vaguely interested
do it.
Also fire us some contacts while you at it
Do you need some sort of engineering background/qualifications to be a driller?
It's dawning on me that I'll be stuck working at royal mail my entire life, like fuk thats happening!!!
Need to move out of englandshire aswell...I feel like a tourist..
You do need to do some study yes. Its not straightforward, gone is the days of on the job training - you need a lot more theory now - the goalposts have moved on and you do need to study. Seriously huge lack of qualified people. you can go anywhere in the world as a driller, for pretty much however much money you want. 200k tax free with more benefits and bonuses than you can possibly spend. Especially if your in some naff third world or rag head land lol.. You just get spending money and vouchers and free places to stay, free bills, free cleaners, etc etc etc etc.
The driller is the guy who physically drills the hole on the rig.
He, to over simplify things operates the drill.
The earns up to about £60k. Its a work your way up from the bottom position. So it would not matter what your background was.
"Drillers" is a term used by production bods and other downstream dudes for anyone involved in the drilling operation.
A production guy driving a desk in aberdeen might call everyone in the drilling department of an operator (oil company) a driller.
Its important to note that if you go the route of study, you will be fast tracked in the bigger operators.
There is a whiff though that if you havent worked up from the experience and learned up "the hard way" over a long time that some people will resent this, as generally, rig operations are controlled by the OIM - but primarily, its the tool pusher. That is why the whole shebang exists in the first place - everything else is just to support drilling the hole, to hoover out the gas or oil.
Everything Dai says is correct - some outfits you can gain experience slowly over time and drag yourself up that way - the larger names are more or less graduate fast track driller programmes now - thats the experience I have from BP and SHELL, as well as the frogs and some yank names too.
The smaller operators you are more likely to be quickly exposed to more training and on the job experience - but that is like any industry.
Theres a few bites at the cherry here. Chances are if you do study and tart yourself about in the right places with the right firms, the world is your oyster...
Just to confuse things, the man whose job title is driller will work for a drilling contractor such a KCA, Transocean, Global Santa Fe etc, the driller Alexjj is refering to is an engineer and will work for an operator and will tend to be a graduate. They are two completely different beasts.
I see, thanks for your info..looks like i have a lot of research to do
Dad worked For Global SantaFe for 25 years... Left last friday lol.
He started as a Roustabout and worked his way thru the ranks... He was before he left an OIM (Offshore Installation Manager) on Platforms and had had a few in his time...
Monarch, Magelan (sp), Galaxy 3 to name a few
He said it is HARD work.. well was back in the day when most folk off shore had just come out of prisons and stuff lol
Id like to go offshore just to see what its like...
He reckons im not the kind of person to go offshore (too fiery
I spent 2 years month on, month off on the Island of St Kilda (a rock off the west coast of scotland..not Australia!)...does that count as offshore work ? The money was good and the times were hard...infact, the money wasnt that good.
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