Looking To Get Into O&g...most Preliminary ?'s Answered

[DGD1]

I'll be brief, I'm in my early 30's and looking to get into O&G, old for this I know, and wanting some no BS advice on what kinds of skills/ schools would be beneficial to get familiar with, short of a 4 year degree in Petro Engineering (which I'm considering regardless of how long it takes).

I'm in the US, I know I will have to work domestically for a while but just looking for some advice on a good skill to specialize in considering I already have a college degree (Industrial Science), military experience and am getting maybe a bit too old for a roustabout. HSE? Trade School? Any Master's Degree field specialty? End goal is to be working offshore internationally within...well...as soon as I can make that happen. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sorry if I've missed another post with these exact questions.

[Soutpeel]

Easy question first, your starting point is the gulf of mexico, if you cant get a start there, you are are not destined for working offshore...

As to what to do, the obvious first answer is get into drilling or well services work. but your questions are very broad, but seems to me you want to get offshore, but you have no clue as to job you want to do....in the first instance you need to decide what it is you want to do as regards a career/job

On face value based on the little bit of info you have given, not sure on your military background but you may want to build on that aspect...

eg on offshore facilities/drilling rigs...there are always positions for people who are combined Safety/security officers/radio operators/medic's/HLO (same person) so if you had all these tickets, you would have marketable skills

There are 3 distinct aspects to offshore work broadly speaking and you have to decide which part of it you want to get involved in, no one can answer this for you.

1. offshore construction/comissioning

2. Drilling

3. Production/maintenance/inspection

within these catagories there are many (too many to list) areas of specialisation as regards jobs

As regards the international aspect of your question, expect to be working (lets assume the GOM, for the purposes of discussion) for a period of at least 6-10 years before venturing out into the big bad world, and understand also that it may never happen either.

Getting into the game locally takes a whole lot of luck and contacts and even more so on the international side of things although your end game is international work...understand if may never happen as well

trust this helps

[DGD1]

First of all thanks. With regards to having crane operator/ safety/ HLO/ medic certifications, what would the odds be of trying to get all of those type certs, having no experience, and actually landing a job just from those? I am assuming quite possibly a waste of cash, from what I've heard. If that's what it takes though I'm fully prepared to do that, if you even can get them with no experience.

[Soutpeel]

First of all thanks. With regards to having crane operator/ safety/ HLO/ medic certifications, what would the odds be of trying to get all of those type certs, having no experience, and actually landing a job just from those? I am assuming quite possibly a waste of cash, from what I've heard. If that's what it takes though I'm fully prepared to do that, if you even can get them with no experience.

you would be able to get into training companies and do the certs without any experience, as to the odds of getting a job, I would say better than most as these are marketable skills which are always needed, however this job set may limit your international aspirations, as typically these jobs can be filled regionally.

to be marketable in the international game..you need technical expertise in some aspect of the business

another thing you can do if still unsure of what to get into, look at the O&G jobs websites..ie Oil careers/Rig Zone etc and see which jobs come up most frequently....these are the skills which wil be in demand and use this to decide the direction of your career.

There are so many options, but as mentioned a key to breaking into the offshore game is your contacts, this typically will get you any further than the bits of paper you have, so if was me starting over again and I was living in the US, I would be trying to drum up contacts with people/companies involved in the gulf of mexico.

another avenue, if you decided to get into say the drilling side is to start on the land rigs in the US, get some expereince and then try and get offshore, the basic principles are same...sure I will get the offshore drilling guys on here howling now saying its not the same...

[DGD1]

Okay. Thanks again for your advice. I'm going to have to weigh my options here...

[tuky]

Like Soutpeel says relationships are the probably the most important thing to getting your foot in the door.

It is hard to break in to the game, but believe it or not it is just as hard to get out of it.

I am in the first of Soutpeels aspect of working in this industry.

1. offshore construction/comissioning

It is not as easy a life as everyone thinks too, each new project for me lasts 2 - 3 years. That will include construction, commissioning and offshore HUC. Const/Comm mostly likely conducted in a yard in Korea for example, 2 years there and then the next project may be in Indonesia, or Thailand, or Azerbaijan etc etc. That gives you 2 years to build up relationships in the new country only to have to give it all up and start all over again.

Sometimes one of my biggest wishes is to actually have a place to call home.