eHelpfulTips™    How To Advice & Thrifty Tips     

Main Page

Electronics & Computers

Home Projects

Gardening

Health & Fitness

Outdoors

Education & Kids

Automotive

Food, Beverages, Recipes

Pets & Animals

Money & Thrifty Tips

Business and Employment

Travel and Leisure

Thrifty Living Books 

Links To More How - To Articles

Search Amazon.com  

Earn A Living Blogging About The Places You Love

How To Get A Job In Oil and Gas Production. Oilfield Jobs

Begin by learning what oil and gas production employees do. Once an oil well has been drilled it is up to an army of production employees to do the things necessary to bring the oil or gas to market.
Production employees may work on land or on offshore platforms where equipment has been set up.

Pumper - Gauger Jobs In Oil Production

Learn about the job a gauger does. The gauger or pumper for example is in charge of maintaining pumpjacks, tanks, water separators, compressors and such that keep the oil flowing from the well. This is the backbone job of oil and gas production. Without oilfield guagers and pumpers the oilfield would shut down.
The duty of an oilfield guager involves driving around an oil field and checking on multiple wells and tanks and recording the volume of oil produced. If an oil production employee works offshore he will likely ride a crew boat or helicopter to a production platform where he maintains automated equipment, valves and treatment equipment. Ask yourself if doing a job like this interests you.

Above, a University Of Texas  showing oil tanks, separators, well head, etc.

The above illustration shows some of the types of equipment that oil production employees deal with. In the lower left hand corner is an illustration of the wellhead, where oil or natural gas flows out of the well bore under it's own pressure. If the pressure his not high enough to force oil or gas from the ground, a pumpjack will need to be installed. Oil production employees are responsible for maintaining all of this equipment.

The tanks in the upper right are oil and water tanks. There will typically be a water tank, where produced salt water is collected to be hauled away and oil tanks that store oil which will be picked up by trucks and sold. The job of an oil production employee such as a pumper or gauger is to make sure the quality of this oil is good and meets the standards required by the purchasing company. Otherwise the oil will be refused by the truck driver and there may be a charge for the trip.

Other equipment found on an oil lease includes separators and heater treaters, both of which separate oil, gas and water from each other so that the oil and gas can be sold and the water disposed of. These complex systems require that oil production employees train for a long period of time, often working as an assistant pumper or gauger. The same type of equimpent seen above is also found offshore, though the components are arranged differently on an offshore platform and oil is sent by pipeline to market.

Look into other oil production activities besides the job of gauger that fit your abilities and education. Take courses in oil and gas technology at a community or junior college. Other production jobs include working as a flowback technician. When a well is competed a service company that specializes is "flow backs" will set up equipment to measure just how much oil and gas the well contains and how best to regulate the well so as not to destroy it. Flow back technicians stay at the well site after the rig has gone for several days.

Where Are Most Oil Production Jobs Found?

All of these types of jobs of course are found in areas where there is more and more oil drilling happening. Luckily thanks to the Marcellus Shale and other shale formations, oil and gas production jobs are now found all over the United States. Natural gas wells require pumpers and gaugers just like oil wells do, though the duties may differ. Gas wells typically require less maintenance, since there are no pumpjacks involved, but gas treatment equipment such as dehydrators and seperators must be checked and maintained to ensure that the gas being sold is free of contaminants and water.

  Try sites like Rigzone.com for job listings as well as local newspaper classified ads in areas where these jobs occur.

Be prepared to move. Chances are you will have to relocate if there is not oil and gas production activity near where you are now. Oil production employees will have to be “on call” often 24 - 7 if problems with equipment arises.
Applicants should have good mechanical skills, a background in engines, piping and oilfield safety. Oilfield Production employees routinely deal with pressures over 5,000 PSI and mistakes with this type of pressure, or even a few pounds of pressure for that matter can be fatal.

Applicants should have a clean background history and a clean drug test.
Persons wanting to pursue a career in oil and gas production should read as much as they can on the industry before applying.  Consider taking classes at your local community college in Oil and Gas Technology. You may have to relocate to an area such as Tulsa Oklahoma or Midland Texas to find a junior college with course such as therse.  One particularly good book is "Oil and Gas Production In Nontechnical Language" which can be found on one of the sites in the resource section below.

Resources: Oilfield Bookstore
 

Similar Articles:

How to Get a Job as How To Get A Job As A Welding Inspector or CWI

How to Get a Job as a Bridge Inspector

The Job Of A Whipstock Hand In the Oilfield. Drilling Rig Jobs

How To Find A Job In The Wind Energy Industry

Cheers.