Good Things To Know About Oil And Gas Engineer Jobs

Good Things To Know About Oil And Gas Engineer Jobs by Dalvin Rumsey

People who get to work as engineers in the oil and gas production are usually very well trained professionals. There are many things an engineer can be responsible for. For instance, a drilling engineer has to make sure the drilling of wells goes well, and also provide engineering support for all stages of oil and gas extraction. This includes planning and drawing up the drilling program, monitoring safety and providing on-site support. The drilling engineer must analyze the performance of the drilling and the factors that may sometimes influence the cost and the efficiency of the process as a whole.

The reservoir engineers are the ones to estimate the amounts of oil and gas that could be taken from the rock of the reservoir. They are asked to draw up plans in order to be able to extract as much as possible, as you might have already guessed by now!

Oil and gas engineers work in offices that are usually situated onshore. There, they must spend some 40 hours each week. This is not like working offshore, where the working schedule is usually 12 hours on and 12 hours off for two weeks. The rest of the month, they are being left onshore. The salaries are quite good in this particular field. The work of an oil and gas engineer requires that the person has skills for solving any problem that might occur and work well in a team or being able to lead one. Oil and gas engineers must have a scientific approach to their work and be prepared to work away from home from time to time. These persons must also be responsible and safety-conscious. The most important thing is that they are interested in protecting natural resources and the environment while meeting the demand for oil and gas.

There are many types of employers that may be able to offer jobs in this field. Should it be an operating company or a drilling company, the jobs keep on flowing. There are many other companies that can provide jobs in the oil and gas field. Some of them are engineering consultancies and service companies, for instance the seismic exploration firms or the well service firms.

So, an oil and gas engineer must have a postgraduate qualification, and most of all, he must be rather young of age, as it is very difficult to start working in this field when you are in fact close to 50.

About the Author

HirednotFired - Oil And Gas Job Search - Free Job & Resume Posting - Engineer Recruitment and Procurement. Your one stop for Oil Jobs .

When Will The World Run Out Of Gas?

When Will the World Run Out Of Gas? By William Cate

When it takes a barrel of oil to produce a barrel of oil, our Civilization will have run out of gas. It's too simplistic to estimate the known oil reserves and divided that figure by annual oil consumption and project that in about thirty years, we'll be out of gas.

In January 1901, the Texas Spindletop Field was brought into production. Initially, this one oil field produced more oil than Russian produces yearly, now. This discovery lead to the end of the Rockefeller Oil Monopoly. It introduced a century of global oil exploration. We have probably found all the cheap oil available to us. American's oil production peaked in 1969. World oil production is expected to peak around 2015. Meanwhile, oil consumption has risen by over fourfold since 1960. It is expected to continue to rise during the next decade. When demand exceeds dwindling supplies, the result is higher prices. It doesn't necessarily mean the end of the gas-guzzler. There are folks willing to pay fifty or one hundred dollars a gallon for gas.

There are no doubt undiscovered oil fields. Odds are these fields are small, deep and far more costly to develop than those of the 20th Century. It's impossible to project how much oil we haven't found. Whatever the amount of undiscovered petroleum, we will no doubt find it in the next thirty years. That oil may add a few weeks or years to our cheap oil needs.

The popular concept of profit oriented oil companies doesn't fit with the facts. The goal of the oil companies seems to be to maximum revenues, not maximum profits. In 1953, the U.S. Postal Service postcard cost one cent. In the same year, a gallon of regular gas in the San Francisco Bay Area cost thirty-four cents a gallon. Today, a USPS postcard costs twenty-four cents. Using the same price move on regular gas, I should be paying about $8.16/gal at the pump. It's evident that gas prices are agreed upon among the oil companies. However, the goal has always been maximum consumption, not maximum profit. It's a policy that will cost us dearly in this Century.

A better measure of the cost of oil, or any energy source, is the amount of energy required to produce it. Economists, geologists and physicists call this quantity the "energy return on investment" or E.R.O.I. As the average E.R.O.I. of an economy's energy sources drops toward 1 to 1, an ever-larger fraction of the economy's wealth must go to finding and producing energy. The energy return on investment for conventional oil, which provides about 40 percent of the world's commercial energy and more than 95 percent of America's transportation energy, has been falling for decades. United States production leads this trend. America is where petroleum resources have been exploited the longest. In the United States, from the early 1970s to today the return on investment of oil and natural gas extraction has fallen from about 25 to 1 to about 15 to 1. It will continue to fall toward 1 to 1 over the next three decades.

Without a doubt, mankind can find ways to push back these constraints on the global energy supply. But we probably can't push them back indefinitely, because our species' capacity to innovate, and to deliver the fruits of that innovation when and where they're needed, isn't infinite and our resources are finite. We will lose the energy race in this Century.

America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Unfortunately, burning coal currently creates more pollution than using oil. We have built dams everywhere they should have been built and many places where they should never have been built. More dams in unworkable locations won't solve our oil problems. There is nuclear energy, but what do you do with all that radioactive waste? It's a question that Dr. Edward Teller and all those who have followed him haven't answer. At present, solar power is uneconomic. There should be a Manhattan Project to make solar costs and efficiency competitive with the current price of oil. There are only so many windy hills and thus wind-powered energy production is limited. None of these alternatives will meet the world's growing need for cheap oil.

We live in a finite world. Our capacity to consume nonrenewable resources appears to be infinite. The two paths will cross in this Century. The finite world path will be the only one that continues into the 22nd Century.

About the Author

He is the Managing Director of Beowulf Investments [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/]. He's the Executive Director of the Global Village Investment Club [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/] He's a Venture Capital & Equity Finance Consultant [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/williamcateventurecapitalampequityfinanceconsultant/]

How Much Natural Gas is Left?

Although oil gets the media attention, natural gas also plays a major role in the energy needs of the world. So, how much natural gas is left in the world? The answer may surprise you.

How Much Natural Gas is Left?

Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is non-renewable. Although called "natural gas", it could also be called methane for all intents and purposes since methane comprises the vast majority of the gas. Natural gas is found in oil fields, coal minds and its own unique locations.

Natural gas is more of a direct use energy in our daily lives. By direct use, I am referring to actually seeing it. You see it in action when you turn on your gas stove. You also see it when you spend 20 minutes burning your fingers while trying to light the pilot light on a heater. Beside residential use, natural gas is also used by industries for a wide variety of manufacturing applications. A less known use is as an ingredient in the production of ammonia.

Interestingly, and perhaps unfortunately, the countries with major natural gas resources are mostly those that also have significant oil reserves. Iran and Russia have some of the largest fields, as do many other Mideast countries. Fortunately, natural gas is also found in oil-deficient countries such as Australia, Argentina and Mexico.

So, how much natural gas do we currently have to fill our energy needs? The most current estimates put the reserves at roughly six thousand trillion cubic feet. My, that certain sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Given our current rate of use, however, it equate to between 60 and 65 years worth of supply.

As with oil, there are two issues that can throw the estimate of the number of years completely off. The issues are economic growth and further reserves.

The first is the emerging economies of China and India to mention to of the bigger ones. The economies of these countries are expanding like crazy and natural gas is one of the energy sources they live off of. In the next 10 to 20 years, the amount of natural gas needed by these countries should multiply, putting strain on the supply.

The second issue is more positive. Simply put, we should find more natural gas fields in future years. The prospects for finding more are, in fact, much better than those for oil. The reason has to do with transportation. Simply put, oil is easy to transport while natural gas is not. Recent innovations have solved many of the transportation issues, so exploration efforts are picking up.

Natural gas plays a fundamental role in the overall energy supplies of most economies, particularly first world ones. While natural gas supplies seem strong for the foreseeable future, it is important to understand it is not a renewable resource, to wit, it will run out one day.

About the Author

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - a directory of solar companies.

Killer Coalbed Methane Gas Powers Chinese Taxis

Successful investors can predict where the market is going years before the rest of us. Like the clichés of selling ice to Eskimos (or the British version of selling coal to Newcastle), Richmond, Virginia-based Coal Baron E. Morgan Massey was five years ahead of the markets when he raised $75 million to develop coal mines in China's Shanxi province in 2001.

As early as 1994, the seventies-something founder and chairman of A.T. Massey Coal, which has since evolved into Massey Energy (MEE), began planning to bring American-invented Longwall mining technology to China's coal mines in Shanxi province. With his Chinese partners, Massey and Asian American Coal control about two billion tons of coal reserves.

It is Massey's spin off coalbed methane (CBM) company Asian American Gas, which caught our eye. According to Shanxi News, the CBM output of a pilot well set a new national record, continuously producing 40,000 SCM per day (standard cubic meters). The new technology which created the new national record is something called "Multi-Lateral Drilling (MLD)."

Asian American Gas Chief Executive Zou Xiang Dong claimed the MLD technology helped the methane gas output for his wells on his company's Panzhuang CBM block in Shanxi province jump by more than 40 times that of conventional vertical wells. Obviously the company is excited as four other MLD wells installed in the latter half of 2006. The company believes those wells might also have the potential to match the record production.The previous daily output record stood at 16,000 cubic meters.

China Celebrates Coalbed Methane

An inside look at China's rapidly blossoming CBM industry is nothing if not electrifying. The world's energy entrepreneurs have been rushing to China to take up the country's state-owned methane gas company - China United Coalbed Methane Co (CUCBM) - on production-sharing contracts offered to foreign energy companies. Since its inception, CUCBM has signed 27 production-sharing contracts with CBM developers from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.

The largest publicly traded company, and among the first to participate, was Chevron Corp (CVX). But smaller firms have also joined in the hunt to develop China's vast natural gas reserves. Far East Energy (FEEC) and Pacific Asia China Energy (PCEEF), have been awarded massive land concessions - on the order of the size of the state of Delaware. Many of these are home to rich coalbed methane reserves with thick, multi-level coal beds with high methane content. For example, U.S.-based Orion Energy was awarded a production-sharing contract on more than 460 square kilometers in the Sanjiao region of coal-rich Shanxi province. Volume is estimated at 60 billion cubic meters.

Typically, the foreign company assumes all the operational risk to verify the quantity of coalbed methane gas. Costs from exploration through to commercial production are borne by the foreign company. Pacific Asia China Energy vice president of exploration Dr. Marchioni told us that the positive side of this arrangement is that CUCBM would provide all of the coal exploration work, which he called quite satisfactory, and that his company's main work was to confirm the Chinese coal exploration. In a previous article we discovered that the gas content both Far East Energy and Pacific Asia China Energy confirmed, during their drilling programs, compared well against the top coalbed methane producing regions in the U.S. and Canada.

The Chinese are not giving away their CBM reserves without taxation. The Chinese-foreign joint ventures are subject to five-percent value-added tax when they begin to exploit the coalbed methane gas. However, for the first two years such joint ventures show a profit, the companies will be exempt from the business income tax. For the third through fifth year, the tax rate will be cut by half. In order to encourage new technology, such as the Multi-Lateral Drilling Technology or Mitchell Drilling Services' Dymaxion® drill rigs, the imported materials used for prospecting and development work are exempt from customs duties and the import regulation tax.

According to Yang Jian, an executive at China United Coalbed Methane, "The state encourages the development of this new energy, and there's no restriction on foreign companies entering this field. With the good prospects, the expanded production of coalbed methane can be expected to happen soon." Foreign companies have spent about $160 million exploring the concessions they were awarded. Yang pointed out that large Chinese companies, such as China National Petroleum Corp, were now entering CBM exploration. Shanxi province's Eleventh 5-Year Plan is forecast to exceed $15 billion for CBM exploration, development and utilization.

China's Killer Coal Gas Fuels Taxi Cabs

Holding the world's record for coal mining deaths annually, the Chinese have looked upon coal gas as a dangerous nuisance. During coal mining, methane gas can cause explosions resulting in death and injury to the miners. China United Coalbed Methane Corp general manager Sun Maoyuan pointed out, "About 80 percent of casualties are attributed to these gas explosions, causing direct losses of $93 million each year."

By extracting the gas - simply de-gasifying the coal mine before producing from it, deaths can be avoided and China can help power its economy with a 'new' energy source. One Chinese newspaper beat the drum for coal gas, writing, "As a 'green' energy source of good quality and high efficiency, coalbed methane has a promising future."

Fuxin City in China's Liaoning province is China's first city to replace coal-made-gas with CBM. Coalbed methane now supplies more than 80,000 households and 1,000 taxis. Twenty-three year-old taxi driver Li Gang is happy about using compressed coal-bed methane in his cab. "I can save on half of my expenses for fuel each day," he told Xinhua news service. One cubic meter of compressed CBM is the equivalent of 1.13 liters of gasoline, but retails for less than one-half the price of gasoline.

Starting in January, Jincheng City refitted about 90 percent of the city's 1300 taxis to use both compressed CBM and gasoline. At China's largest CBM exploitation base, Quinshui Basin, wells are operating at full capacity to help fuel factories, households and most importantly the city's growing dependency on automobiles.

China hosts more than 30 trillion cubic meters of CBM reserves, according to the China Coal Information Research Institute, and ranks behind Russia and Canada for the world's largest reserves. This much CBM is tantamount of 45 billion tons of standard coal. Some sixty percent of the methane gas is stored in coal beds below 1500 meters, which can easily be developed.

In 2004, China's coal mines polluted the atmosphere by pumping out 14 billion cubic meters of coal gas. By accelerating coal mine development in China, the emissions problem will worsen. Some experts estimate more than 17 billion cubic meters will be released by 2020. Because of the global shortage of energy sources, the Chinese are now turning to CBM as a reliable substitute for conventional natural gas.

Following the extraordinary publicity about deaths from methane gas explosions in China's coal mines, China's State Council, introduced measures in 2005, to harness gas by developing CBM projects and de-gasifying mines. To intensify CBM exploitation, the State Council issued a 16-clause guideline, this past June, offering a number of preferential policies on land use and access of methane-generated electricity to local power grids. Because of the urgency to get CBM in broader use, two months later, the National Development and Reform Commission began measures to put the guidelines into practice.

New CBM Drilling Technologies Move China Forward

In the mid 1990s, China began exploring some of its vast CBM reserves. Inadequate investment and technology led to the formation of CUCBM. The state-owned CBM company began attracting foreign partners to invest in developing China's CBM reserves and to bring with them new drilling technologies.

In 2005, China consumed 1 billion cubic meters of coalbed methane gas and was expected to use 1.4 billion cubic meters this past year. To date, more than 600 CBM wells have been sunk across China. Most remain in the exploration and pilot stages. New technologies brought to China through joint ventures with CUCBM could help accelerate development and dramatically increase the number of CBM wells

As we mentioned earlier, new CBM drilling technologies have arrived in China to advance many CBM projects more efficiently into production. With an eye to reduce cost and maximize efficiency, drilling technologies from the U.S. and Australia are being brought to China to expedite the emerging CBM sector.

Multi-Lateral Drilling Technology (MLT) offers solutions to tough economic climates and rough operating conditions. MLT has been used to recover 'heavy oil' deposits, such as those found in Canada or Venezuela. This technology has also found its way to the hostile North Sea to increase recoverable reserves from those oil fields.

Partly to reduce well construction costs, another advantage is to add incremental reserves and production rates to a project. Uneconomic projects could suddenly be made to work. When we spoke to Nathan Mitchell of Mitchell Drilling (Brisbane, Australia), he told us many previously sub-economic projects could become profitable by using his Dymaxion® drilling technology. Mitchell told us CBM extraction could drop to as low as $1.10/mcf, whereas others were struggling to extract for more than three or four times the cost.

Mitchell was quite excited to import his drilling technology to China through the company's joint venture with Pacific Asia China Energy. The joint venture would have an exclusive to utilize the Dymaxion® technology in China for all CBM drilling and coal mine de-gasification projects. At a coal symposium in Guizhou province this past spring, Mitchell spoke of the numerous coal companies which expressed a high level of interest in his company's drilling technology. From what we understand, the first such drill rig should shortly arrive in China.

Most MLT has been used for oil exploration projects. Noted, however, is that MTL may significantly impact reservoir spacing in deep, tight gas wells by helping to achieve optimal drainage spacing, which is impeded when drilling to deep reservoirs. By contrast, Mitchell has drilled more than 250 CBM wells in Australia and had moved forward with CBM drilling in India. This is the company's first entry to China, where rugged terrain could test the efficiency of his system.

CBM Timing Coincident with China's Red Hot Stock Market

China's Shanghai stock exchange is now among the world's best performing bourses. The Shanghai Composite Index now approaches 3,000, having hit a record high last week. Millions of Chinese have exited the frothy real estate market to trade stocks - more than triple the number of investment accounts were opened last year compared to 2005.

In July, commodities guru and best-selling author Jim Rogers told StockInterview he had cashed out of every other emerging market in the world and had invested heavily in China. China's financial markets collapsed two years ago and have now returned with a vengeance. Remember 1999? That's China today. According to the New York Times, one mutual fund raised $5 billion in a single day and some mutual fund managers are annually making more than $600,000 - in China!

What's that have to do with CBM? At some point, and we have already heard of interest of such, Chinese investors could very well flock into the CBM companies we've written about. There is an irrational exuberance vibrating across China's financial markets. But, this is also a country now attracting foreign investment. Asian Development Bank has injected $117 million into CBM development projects, Japanese banks have invested $20 million and National Investment Company of China has announced it would invest more than $300 million over the next seven years.

As more foreign capital comes to China for CBM projects, a scarcity of the best CBM projects could come about. As we have noted in previous articles, China's race for energy security has become a global challenge for its economic growth. We expect many of the local industries and prefecture level cities could plan to deal directly with the Chinese-foreign joint ventures in securing their own gas supplies by direct investment in the foreign-owned companies. By partnering with the foreign-owned, publicly traded companies, their communities would ensure a reliable energy source.

Nearly half of China's coal mines are rich in gas, but CBM remains undeveloped and still in its infancy in the world's largest coal market. Last May, China's National Development and Reform Commission approved a five-year plan to exploit coalbed methane. They plan to dramatically boost CBM output to 10 billion cubic meters by 2010.

In the back of our minds, we wonder what would happen should the aggressive Chinese investment community rush into CBM in the same way many North Americans and Australians have embraced the shares of uranium mining companies.

COPYRIGHT © 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

About the Author

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His focus on the uranium mining and nuclear fuel sector resulted in the widely popular "Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market," which is now available on http://www.stockinterview.com and on http://www.amazon.com

Online pipeline maps - details about the exploration gas sector

The natural gas industry has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years. Various techniques were discovered, particularly in the exploration gas field. The online presence of specialized companies proved out to be very helpful and the industry grew really powerful.

Individual pipeline companies started to use the Internet in order to offer a better view of the industry. Pipeline maps were created for them and many specialists in the field considered them as one of the best invention ever.

The exploration gas field can be very well linked with the transportation of this precious resource. Exploration, extraction, storage and transportation are vital steps in the natural gas industry and all of them require advanced techniques. As gas can be found in oil or natural gas fields, including coal it is mandatory for the exploration gas procedures to be thorough and extensive.

Experts in the field work very close together in order to obtain the most benefits from the natural gas resources. After the natural gas undergoes various stages of exploration and extraction, it needs to be transported along the pipelines. Many people are interested in discovering the whole network of interstate pipeline and understanding the diverse elements presented, including the ones about the exploration gas sector.

Mapping has been considered a very interesting technique, especially by the people working in the oil and gas industry. They need pipeline maps and the information presented on them in order to be able to do their job as best as they can. For them, mapping services, with data gathering and analysis are vital in helping them take important decisions. Technical drawings of pipeline maps are made by applying graphic design and other procedures, including cartographic principles.

The system for representing important details of the pipeline network has been welcomed by a lot of experts in the field. Nowadays, the Internet is the first place people think of to find the information needed and this thing is valid for pipeline maps also. Pipelines are finely represented along with their characteristics, meaning diameter, capacity and owners. These elements are crucial to the success of any project in the business and they must be well-known.

Pipeline maps are made with the aid of geodatabases and they are presented online by reliable websites. These people are trying to meet the demands of the industry and they use diverse techniques in order to create such maps. They offer significant information linked with this industry, meaning pipeline routes, data about gas production and storage.

A wide range of data is analyzed so as to make this pipeline maps as accurate as possible. Along with the info presented above, come details about mainline throughputs, operators and horsepower. The maps are designed only by specialists, being easy to comprehend and put in use.

The natural gas sector is a big part of the United States industry. There are many esteemed companies out there, meeting the demands of the industry and using the Internet to such purposes. Pipeline maps are created for these companies, offering the needed information and presenting the natural gas system in an appealing manner.

Rockies Express Pipeline is one of the top companies in the market. They have a well-designed natural gas system, stretching from Colorado to Ohio. They have three segments of pipeline: Entrega, West and East. They fulfill the nation's requirements for natural gas and thus for energy. Rockies Express Pipeline maps include pipeline capacity, compressor facilities and lateral pipelines (to and from the mainline).

These pipeline maps for companies such as Rockies Express Pipeline include also extra mechanical devices, made especially for compression and also the natural gas deposits. An exact representation of important elements is required in this industry and there are many companies, including Rockies Express Pipeline, who desire to gain from them.
About the Author

Pipeline maps are indeed useful for specialists in the gas industry, mainly the ones of the exploration gas sector. They are made using unique skills and they present up-to-date information about powerful companies, such as Rockies Express pipeline.



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The petroleum industry: fuel oil, gas oil, transportation and mapping solutions

As modern society consumes larger amounts of fuel every day, the energy industry has become a very important part of the development and infrastructure of every country, and so has the petroleum industry, which includes oil companies, refiners and so on. Fuel oil is essential to land, sea and air transportation or heating and nowadays it is required in greater quantities than ever.

A commonly used type of fuel oil is gas oil, generally used for industrial heating, off-road diesel vehicles and for some cars and ships. Diesel gas oil can also be used to produce small amounts of electricity, but it's really polluting and expensive. In Europe, diesel gas oil is most commonly used to fuel about 40% of the cars, 90% of the SUVs and most of the trucks. Many people prefer diesel gas oil-powered cars because they have lower fuel consumption and produce only about 69% of the polluting gasses. On the other hand, burning diesel gas oil produces greater quantities of sulfur than gasoline.

The transportation of oil plays an essential part in the logistics and economy of the oil companies, as well as in the effectiveness of the use of oil. Pipeline transport provides the most economical method to transport great amounts of gas and it was pioneered in the late 19th century by a company in Azerbaijan. The pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes with diameters ranging from 30 centimeters to 1.20 meters and they're usually built over land. Given the fact that building pipeline systems under the sea is very expensive and demanding, most of the oil at sea is transported with the help of special ships, called "tanker ships".

The mechanism is simple: the oil is pumped through the pipes by a system of pump stations built along de pipeline. The oil usually flows through the pipes at a speed ranging between 1 and 6 meters per second.

Let's take for example the Williams' Company Transco pipeline system, which has been functioning for over 50 years now. The Transco pipeline moves natural gas through its approximately 11.000 mile system, stretching across the United States from South Texas to New York City and is a great provider to the northeastern and southeastern states. Transco pipeline delivers natural gas from the Gulf Coast to areas like New York and New Jersey.

The Transco pipeline has a system design capacity of 7.8 billion cubic feet per day and a seasonal storage of 203.4 billion cubic feet. It supplies the Gulf Coast and it has market areas such as the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. Also, the Transco pipeline system has about 11.000 miles of pipeline with 43 compressor stations built along the way to keep the gas moving. One must admit that the numbers are quite impressive!

Along with the great amounts of oil to be transported and the thousands of miles long pipeline systems came the need to preserve the accuracy of the drilling and exploration as well as the transportation of oil. And so came to life specialized companies to do that.

Rextag Strategies is one of the leaders in this field of expertise. Using GIS (Geographic Information Systems), mapping and cartographic capabilities and high quality graphic design, the company provides all that is needed for the effectiveness and success of all projects. The company has a competitive advantage compared to others in the same field of expertise, providing very useful information that cannot be found anywhere else. Recently, Rextag Strategies has released the "Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Map Book", the first of its kind, offering valuable information about the top 40 US natural gas pipeline systems.

The energy and petroleum industries have both reached high levels of performance and efficiency during the last two decades and many companies have developed methods of exploiting and making good use of the planet's resources. Still, there is a constant threat to the environment that each and every company should consider, no matter the financial damage to their budget.

About the Author

By visiting our website you will not only be able to find out everything there is to know about gas oil, fuel oil or the Transco pipeline system, but you will also be able to purchase The Interstate Natural Pipelines Map Book - a complete, updated, professional and very valuable resource you will most lik

Oil and Gas Rig Expansion Creates Exciting Employment Opportunities b

Oil and Gas Rig Expansion Creates Exciting Employment Opportunities

Copyright 2007 by Harry S Richards

Work offshore for just half a year and get paid for the whole year? Sounds too good to be true, but that's on offer now in offshore locations worldwide.

The problem for new entrants to the industry is that these jobs are rarely advertised. You'll be hard-pushed to find them listed on Oil Company websites or in search engines. Why? Because now the growth is so fast that they are now recruiting by use of "The Walk-in Interview". It saves time and keeps rigs fully manned.

Walk-In Interviews: Don't get caught out by recruitment agency offers of "Guaranteed Work on Oil Rigs" that's nonsense because those agents will never know where the next "Walk-in Interview" is going to take place. It's almost like "speed dating" except that you only get one chance to bring along your passport and a copy of a recent payslip.

There is only one publication that I have seen that lists most of the current venues where you can simply "Walk-in" and get yourself an Oil Rig Job. [ see: http://www.offshore-jobs.co.uk ]. Even entry-level jobs are available, but you should have some similar shore-based skill or experience that can be adapted.

The Opportunities: Opportunities to work offshore worldwide have never been greater. The demand for new crews is almost at a peak. The major players in Gas and Oil exploration such as Shell, Aramco and UMW in South East Asia, and even China, have recently launched their expansion plans to drive earnings growth in 2007-2008 and beyond.

The Unseen Opportunity: For the Oil Rig worker, the unseen opportunity is the time off. Where else can you go to work and get two weeks out of the month off? The time off presents a truly wonderful opportunity.

Free Living and all found: Rig workers get four hot meals a day, all you care to eat. Seafood and steaks are on the menu often. Snacks, cold drinks, and fruit juices are provided 24 hours a day. Between working hours there are plenty of satellite programs and videos to watch, served with snacks and cold drinks.

The bigger companies, such as Esso and Shell go out of their way to provide all the comforts of home. Some even have Gym rooms and Saunas. Another perk is that you can call home anytime you like via satellite phones.

New Entrants: For the new entrant, previous offshore experience is not a requirement, but it helps. All applicants are considered on an individual basis, and once you get some basic offshore experience, you have the key which will open many doors for you. It's getting that initial bit of experience which sometimes presents the biggest problem. The website mentioned earlier includes several tips to show you how to get your first bit of experience.

Military Service If you have prior military service or you still are in the military, you will be able to use your military training to your own advantage. The military offers a great deal of excellent training, and some of it is transferable to the offshore industry.

For example, if you are a mechanic in the military, you will probably have diesel and hydraulic experience. Many things offshore operate hydraulically, pneumatically, and are diesel powered. If you worked on jet aircraft or helicopters, then you have some excellent experience to offer. Turbine engines are becoming more common all the time as power plants offshore.

About the Author

Harry S Richards is currently based in South East Asia and reports on many worthwhile careers in which he has personal knowledge or experience both at home and overseas. He runs several websites including http://www.themartuk.com and http://www.beauforts.com . His motto is "If you must have a career why not choose an Action Career". Such as you may find at http://www.offshore-jobs.co.uk . This article may be reprinted as long