Oil & Gas Offshore

NIKMAISON

Hi im trying to get offshore ive done my medical and survival and geenhands. Ive registerd with agencies and sent countless cv,s out. I havnt got any experience offshore but i have in engineering as i was a royal enginner for 6 years in the british army. I have a FLT licence and a HIAB licence which could come in handy towards a crane course. I have a #ADR licence and have worked with dangerous chemicals before i am H&S aware as it is a big thing in the army .

I was just wondering if anyone could give me any ideas or contacts they may no or if anyone has heard of any offshore work advertised. i would like to work from the bottom and work my way up.

Please if anyone has any ideas please post here thankyou.

Nik

ohreally

Ask your local newsagent to order you a copy of aberdeen press and journal. I can't remember which day has the vaccancies - perhaps a local can advise?

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Default.aspx?UserKey=

mitchaa

NIKMAISON wrote: »

Hi im trying to get offshore ive done my medical and survival and geenhands. Ive registerd with agencies and sent countless cv,s out. I havnt got any experience offshore but i have in engineering as i was a royal enginner for 6 years in the british army. I have a FLT licence and a HIAB licence which could come in handy towards a crane course. I have a #ADR licence and have worked with dangerous chemicals before i am H&S aware as it is a big thing in the army .

I was just wondering if anyone could give me any ideas or contacts they may no or if anyone has heard of any offshore work advertised. i would like to work from the bottom and work my way up.

Please if anyone has any ideas please post here thankyou.

Nik

It's a very hard industry to get into, sometimes it's who you know, not what you know that secures you a place offshore.

I work in Aberdeen, have done my stints offshore and i know guys similar to yourself who have been trying to get offshore for numerous years without success. There's a certain chappy i know who has spent well in excess of £10k on numerous courses and still not managed to get offshore.

Schlumberger is a favourite for ex forces guys, but pay to begin with is quite poor. (£18k basic + offshore bonus so about £23k in 1st year) You will not be going in as a drilling roustabout, you will be starting a career path as a field service technician. (Much better route if you ask me)

There are quite a few ways you can go, you can go the drilling side, or you can go the services side. (There are others, marine, diving, onshore support etc but much more specialist orientated)
The drilling side is very cliquey though and usually full of school drop outs, guys with no education etc, your typical council estate guys, but it is possible for them to work their way up from basic roustabouts to drillers if they work hard enough at it. Like i said above, it's very cliquey and promotion is more so about who you know, not what you know. Work hard at it in drilling, smile at the right faces and you can make it quite far up the ladder, drillers are earning £60k no probs.

The other way is services side, electricians, mechanical engineers, rov engineering, well testing/TCP etc etc, i can list hundreds of roles that would be classed as services.

These are quite hard to get into though as you usually need prior experience of working in similar positions onshore (usually in Aberdeen) before they'll send you offshore.

I have a contact at Schlumberger i can forward you who take on ex forces guys but your job will primarily be onshore until you get the relevant experience before they'll send you offshore and even then its not a 2wk on 2wk off pattern, it's turn up at the base onshore and if they have work offshore, you'll be sent on that job. Typically you are speaking around 100days offshore, 100days onshore and rest in holidays. You would need to move to Aberdeen though for an onshore/offshore role. The wages do increase as does you offshore bonus, friend of mine is Ex REME AC tech, been with Schlumberger 3yrs now and is earning around £40k, he's working around 120days offshore, 80 or so in base, and the rest in holidays. Think after about 5yrs he said he should be earning circa £60k

If you want to go in as a basic roustabout (Drilling side) competition is fierce, i was speaking to a recruitment specialist last week who had received 1500 applications for 50 advertised roustabout positions. All had RGIT, medical and greenhand courses (basic essentials) and he had to sift through CV's looking for spelling and grammatical errors in order to bin some of them. He still had over 1000 good application forms after this.

Basically at the moment especially due to the economic crisis, it's a who you know, not what you know industry. If you get in, you'll be very very lucky, as there are thousands just like you.

Im in Aberdeen, know the industry very well, been offshore quite a few times. Never again though, boredom is not the best word to describe an offshore experience When you calculate the hrs worked and compare it against your normal civvy onshore working hours, you work yourself to the bone, even in a 2wk on 2wk off (drilling side) rotation.

14x12x13 = 2184hrs worked offshore
37.5 x46 = 1725hrs worked in a normal 9-5 onshore

Unless you are in Aberdeen yourself, you know someone high up in 1 of the companies or you are very very lucky in the application process, i wouldn't hold out for much hope if i am being brutally honest.

Like i said i can give you my schlumberger contact but you would require a move to Aberdeen as they do not work the drilling pattern of 2 and 2.

Anyway, apologies for what may seem like a negative reply, but im being honest here and know the industry well.

Do not let my reply put you off if its what you really want, all the best, you may get lucky

debtfreein4years

also try TWMA www.twma.co.uk they are based in aberdeen and have in the past taken on people to go offshore with no experience, although it is often on a contract basis rather than salaried employee. however they are growing fast because of the nature of the work they do. the recruitment email address is [EMAIL="recruitment@twma.co.uk"]recruitment@twma.co.uk[/EMAIL]

as mitchaa said it really is a difficult industry to get into and it really does come down to who you know. also in my experience do NOT have anyone else phone on your behalf enquiring if they are looking for staff. i used to get people calling all the time on behalf of their son's or husbands seeing if their was any work going and those cv's got put to the bottom of the pile as if they cant make the call themself then they have no business applying for that role.

good luck

ambyuk

Sorry, came across this thread quite by accident but I just wanted to comment on this:

14x12x13 = 2184hrs worked offshore
37.5 x46 = 1725hrs worked in a normal 9-5 onshore

My friend's husband works offshore a 2 on 2 off rotation, and holidays are additional. So the first calculation would be 12 hours a day times 7 days a week times 21 weeks (26 at 2on/2off minus 5 weeks paid holiday). So 1764.

Said friend's husband told me his company were crying out for workers, and they were all over the rigs, but my hubby found it extremely hard to get any sort of look in. He now works for an American company that makes parts for the oil rigs, better hours and very decent pay, 1 mile down the street instead of hundreds of miles away!

mitchaa

ambyuk wrote: »

Sorry, came across this thread quite by accident but I just wanted to comment on this:

14x12x13 = 2184hrs worked offshore
37.5 x46 = 1725hrs worked in a normal 9-5 onshore

My friend's husband works offshore a 2 on 2 off rotation, and holidays are additional. So the first calculation would be 12 hours a day times 7 days a week times 21 weeks (26 at 2on/2off minus 5 weeks paid holiday). So 1764.

Said friend's husband told me his company were crying out for workers, and they were all over the rigs, but my hubby found it extremely hard to get any sort of look in. He now works for an American company that makes parts for the oil rigs, better hours and very decent pay, 1 mile down the street instead of hundreds of miles away!

First of all, i doubt your friends husband gets 2wks on, 2wks off and 5weeks worth of holiday entitlement on top of this. If you are adamant he does so, could you please provide me with the company name

The 5wks does not exist, it was 4wks paid holiday that the unions were fighting for and it was agreed that this would be split pro rata (So only 2wks real holiday, as the remainder 2 would be incorporated in the employees 26wks off)

So in essence, 24wks on 28wks off..

http://www.offshore-technology.com/news/news4031.html

(84hr weeks x 24wks = 2016hrs pa)

However a lot of companies are still flouting this 2wks by paying their employees in lieu of their 'entitled' holidays so still working 26wks on 26wks off. The rate of pay for these 14days is not the same rate of pay as they would get offshore, it's called holiday pay and at a much reduced rate.

There are a handful of companies now working 2wks on 3wks off, but in doing so they have taken 20% pay cuts, i know of a few who were on £60k salaries and they have now dropped to £48k

The usual pattern is still 2wks on 2wks off all year round. There are certainly no companies i know of who work a 21wk on 31wk off pattern that you suggest unless you are speaking of the no holidays 2wk on 3wk off companies(Who have taken pay cuts to do so)

ambyuk

He works for Aramark.

mmcat

Hey, just read this and I thought I could help.

I used to work for Atlantic Resourcing (Petrofac's recruitment divison) and getting an offshore job without experience was hard enough back in August 2008, so now it is going to be neigh on impossible, experience being in the forces won't help at all and even if you had been "offshore" it would have needed to be on a platform, working on a ship as an engineer isn't counted as offshore experience.

Sorry to be such a douche mate

NIKMAISON

Thanx for all the info and posts im still confused its hard to decide on which is true some say there is work there and others say there is no chance i dont know what to think if anyone can forward to people on rigs that would be big help thanx

Kimitatsu

A few pointers;

http://www.psnworld.com/careers.asp?careersid=5

http://www.halliburton.com/careers/default.aspx?pageid=1901&navid=756

http://www.akersolutions.com/Internet/CareerCentre/default.htm

There are a handful of companies now working 2wks on 3wks off, but in doing so they have taken 20% pay cuts, i know of a few who were on £60k salaries and they have now dropped to £48k

Not that I have heard of! Many oil compnies have had to go 2 on 3 off to comply with the EU working time directive (eventually all will have to even the contracting companieswho are still prevaracating) but holiday entitlement is included in that. Contrary to your belief there is a skill shortage offshore with certain trades being in high demand. And my OH works at a high level ofshore within the oil and gas industry.

NIKMAISON

Thankyou for the advice please keep it coming im getting a better idea of the industry and whats going on now thanx
any contacts are very welcome thankyou