Thinking about offshore work, what courses?

[JimSiam]

Hi, I am thinking about trying to get some offshore rig work, what courses would be a good start to place myself in a better position to get work here?

Thanks for any advice

[misterphil]

Hi, I am thinking about trying to get some offshore rig work, what courses would be a good start to place myself in a better position to get work here?

Thanks for any advice

To be honest and speaking from my own experience. It doesnt matter what courses you have done. A lot of it depends on who you know in the offshore business that will vouch for you.

[JimSiam]

Hi, I am thinking about trying to get some offshore rig work, what courses would be a good start to place myself in a better position to get work here?

Thanks for any advice

To be honest and speaking from my own experience. It doesnt matter what courses you have done. A lot of it depends on who you know in the offshore business that will vouch for you.

I am sure it would help a lot, but i have a few months free time so doing some courses would help as well to at least fill in the time and the CV

[Soutpeel]

What are you qualified to do ? Your asking an open ended question, as some else has already stated a bit more to getting into the game than doing a few courses

For example are you a mechanical, electrical etc guy currently on shore ? For example

If you have no related experience/quals etc a few courses over a few months ain't going to help

So a little more of your current background will help people give you the correct advice

[Aussieroaming]

I can't remember the last time I got a job through an interview, it's all about personal reference from blokes who work together. Sometimes I find my mates the next job and sometimes they find mine if they score first.

Personally I have a degree in my profession but that means sweet f all in our industry.

To be honest you need to do time, earn a name and then the o/s work comes up OR you have a mate from previous work that vouches for you....OR you are a green graduate who gets in via an engineering company.

Courses don't really help a lot in my humble opinion..I've done heaps of them and I don't even put them on my resume. The hands on work does the talking.

[starky]

Courses do sweet FA mate. If ya company needs ya trained up they will provide it. As the other boys have said its all about who you know. very hard these days to get a cold start, and when I got away there was no such thing as self training. Dont know where you are from but in Oz now is the worst it has ever been to get a start, our government is doing its best to wipe out the unions and all offshore and even coastal shipping. I wouldnt recommend the offshore to anyone these days that isnt already trained up with years of experience on the vessel, rig, jack up, semi sub you are looking to work on

[pigeonjake]

makes you laugh,

he comes along and says im going to do some couses,

what makes me laugh, not disrespect to you op, but most of us have been in the off shore game for years, many come to thailand, maybe meat a off shore guy and think ill do that,

i had over 25 years welding, several years as a supervisor, now welding inspector, in all just about 40 years exp,

we have said many many times the off shore game in thailand is about done for expats, i got a bit of a job last year inbetween rayong and pattaya in a yard and was good to be honest and looking back i should of stayed there, but i had allready said i would go off shore angola,

jobs over here are hard to find, like many have said its who you know,

that job i was on near rayong the main contratactor was flour from canada, ive kept in touch with the head od there qa dept and ive had emails from many of there guys saying if they ever have another job at that yard i will be there, i didnt work for them, i worked for a british company, but, and this is why they liked me i told it how it was when this british company was blaming every one for this job going wrong bar them, so when i got asked to come and sort the mess out, and the job was in a mess, i told them strait, its your fault, the british company, you started running welds without doing enough test welds, and the first 28 welds they did were all cut outs, thats when i came onto the job,,lol,

flour had been over and done an audit and tore the job apart, so i came along, read the audit, and started to put things right, emailed flour and introduced myself gave them my thoughts and said ill have the job back on track within a month, and i was, there guy came out again to see post audit works, and it was hom who recomended that i stay on that job till the end,

so you see, long story, but its about experience, if i had just been an inspector i wouldnt of been able to sort that job out, but because i was a welder by trade i new what was going wrong strait away with the job, and this only comes with experience,

i can look at drawing and say, hold on we will have problems trying to weld that but there, looking at it from a welders view point, so we can change the drawing and put the field weld in another place,

sorry im going on, just trying to let you see, its about experience not courses

jake

[Isan Farang]

makes you laugh,

he comes along and says im going to do some couses,

what makes me laugh, not disrespect to you op, but most of us have been in the off shore game for years, many come to thailand, maybe meat a off shore guy and think ill do that,

i had over 25 years welding, several years as a supervisor, now welding inspector, in all just about 40 years exp,

we have said many many times the off shore game in thailand is about done for expats, i got a bit of a job last year inbetween rayong and pattaya in a yard and was good to be honest and looking back i should of stayed there, but i had allready said i would go off shore angola,

jobs over here are hard to find, like many have said its who you know,

that job i was on near rayong the main contratactor was flour from canada, ive kept in touch with the head od there qa dept and ive had emails from many of there guys saying if they ever have another job at that yard i will be there, i didnt work for them, i worked for a british company, but, and this is why they liked me i told it how it was when this british company was blaming every one for this job going wrong bar them, so when i got asked to come and sort the mess out, and the job was in a mess, i told them strait, its your fault, the british company, you started running welds without doing enough test welds, and the first 28 welds they did were all cut outs, thats when i came onto the job,,lol,

flour had been over and done an audit and tore the job apart, so i came along, read the audit, and started to put things right, emailed flour and introduced myself gave them my thoughts and said ill have the job back on track within a month, and i was, there guy came out again to see post audit works, and it was hom who recomended that i stay on that job till the end,

so you see, long story, but its about experience, if i had just been an inspector i wouldnt of been able to sort that job out, but because i was a welder by trade i new what was going wrong strait away with the job, and this only comes with experience,

i can look at drawing and say, hold on we will have problems trying to weld that but there, looking at it from a welders view point, so we can change the drawing and put the field weld in another place,

sorry im going on, just trying to let you see, its about experience not courses

jake

Can you mention what qualifications you have for the welding inspection and whare you performed the tests to receive the certification

[overherebc]

makes you laugh,

he comes along and says im going to do some couses,

what makes me laugh, not disrespect to you op, but most of us have been in the off shore game for years, many come to thailand, maybe meat a off shore guy and think ill do that,

i had over 25 years welding, several years as a supervisor, now welding inspector, in all just about 40 years exp,

we have said many many times the off shore game in thailand is about done for expats, i got a bit of a job last year inbetween rayong and pattaya in a yard and was good to be honest and looking back i should of stayed there, but i had allready said i would go off shore angola,

jobs over here are hard to find, like many have said its who you know,

that job i was on near rayong the main contratactor was flour from canada, ive kept in touch with the head od there qa dept and ive had emails from many of there guys saying if they ever have another job at that yard i will be there, i didnt work for them, i worked for a british company, but, and this is why they liked me i told it how it was when this british company was blaming every one for this job going wrong bar them, so when i got asked to come and sort the mess out, and the job was in a mess, i told them strait, its your fault, the british company, you started running welds without doing enough test welds, and the first 28 welds they did were all cut outs, thats when i came onto the job,,lol,

flour had been over and done an audit and tore the job apart, so i came along, read the audit, and started to put things right, emailed flour and introduced myself gave them my thoughts and said ill have the job back on track within a month, and i was, there guy came out again to see post audit works, and it was hom who recomended that i stay on that job till the end,

so you see, long story, but its about experience, if i had just been an inspector i wouldnt of been able to sort that job out, but because i was a welder by trade i new what was going wrong strait away with the job, and this only comes with experience,

i can look at drawing and say, hold on we will have problems trying to weld that but there, looking at it from a welders view point, so we can change the drawing and put the field weld in another place,

sorry im going on, just trying to let you see, its about experience not courses

jake

Can you mention what qualifications you have for the welding inspection and whare you performed the tests to receive the certification

What are you qualified to do at the moment ?

Read Jakes post slowly and carefully.

A lot of the guys out here in similar positions to Jake and me, we don't know each other by the way, started out many years ago doing the courses in UK or some in Thailand when we were already working at lower levels in the trades, welders, sparkies and fitters to mention 3, the courses were paid for by the companies in many cases.

Now in Thailand 99% of those kind of jobs are being done by local Thai's, Indian and Filipinos who are being paid salaries lower than any ex-pat would expect.

Big projects employing lots of ex-pats are almost gone and the ex-pats working on the few remaining have 20+ years of experience. You can't expect to supervise guys who have been doing a job for 10 years if you have only finished a two month course on the trade.

So again the question you have to answer is :- What are you qualified to do at the moment.

I can't exactly remember the timing but now to qualify as a Senior Inspector will take you at least 3 or 4 years.

This is not meant as a put-down by the way.

Edited December 7, 2015 by overherebc

[Isan Farang]

makes you laugh,

he comes along and says im going to do some couses,

what makes me laugh, not disrespect to you op, but most of us have been in the off shore game for years, many come to thailand, maybe meat a off shore guy and think ill do that,

i had over 25 years welding, several years as a supervisor, now welding inspector, in all just about 40 years exp,

we have said many many times the off shore game in thailand is about done for expats, i got a bit of a job last year inbetween rayong and pattaya in a yard and was good to be honest and looking back i should of stayed there, but i had allready said i would go off shore angola,

jobs over here are hard to find, like many have said its who you know,

that job i was on near rayong the main contratactor was flour from canada, ive kept in touch with the head od there qa dept and ive had emails from many of there guys saying if they ever have another job at that yard i will be there, i didnt work for them, i worked for a british company, but, and this is why they liked me i told it how it was when this british company was blaming every one for this job going wrong bar them, so when i got asked to come and sort the mess out, and the job was in a mess, i told them strait, its your fault, the british company, you started running welds without doing enough test welds, and the first 28 welds they did were all cut outs, thats when i came onto the job,,lol,

flour had been over and done an audit and tore the job apart, so i came along, read the audit, and started to put things right, emailed flour and introduced myself gave them my thoughts and said ill have the job back on track within a month, and i was, there guy came out again to see post audit works, and it was hom who recomended that i stay on that job till the end,

so you see, long story, but its about experience, if i had just been an inspector i wouldnt of been able to sort that job out, but because i was a welder by trade i new what was going wrong strait away with the job, and this only comes with experience,

i can look at drawing and say, hold on we will have problems trying to weld that but there, looking at it from a welders view point, so we can change the drawing and put the field weld in another place,

sorry im going on, just trying to let you see, its about experience not courses

jake

Can you mention what qualifications you have for the welding inspection and whare you performed the tests to receive the certification

What are you qualified to do at the moment ?

Read Jakes post slowly and carefully.

A lot of the guys out here in similar positions to Jake and me, we don't know each other by the way, started out many years ago doing the courses in UK or some in Thailand when we were already working at lower levels in the trades, welders, sparkies and fitters to mention 3, the courses were paid for by the companies in many cases.

Now in Thailand 99% of those kind of jobs are being done by local Thai's, Indian and Filipinos who are being paid salaries lower than any ex-pat would expect.

Big projects employing lots of ex-pats are almost gone and the ex-pats working on the few remaining have 20+ years of experience. You can't expect to supervise guys who have been doing a job for 10 years if you have only finished a two month course on the trade.

So again the question you have to answer is :- What are you qualified to do at the moment.

I can't exactly remember the timing but now to qualify as a Senior Inspector will take you at least 3 or 4 years.

This is not meant as a put-down by the way.

Just to put you in the picture I am not looking for a job as a welding inspector and after 40 years in the oil patch I have a fair idea what is going on.

At present I supervise the running of gas completions and have been working in the Middle East for the last 15 years.

Many moons ago I was a qualified NDT oilfield inspector and to perform this duty I had to undertake written and practical tests to obtain the required certification. So in short without the certification it was not possible to perform the job.

[pigeonjake]

you do your CSWIP 3.1 at the TWI, There is one in thailand at chomburi,

but you have to have welding supervision on your cv to stand a chance of even doing the course,

the course is 5 days the 5th day being all exams,

but if you havnt got welding and supervision they wont let you do the course, well they wont in the uk, but my thinking is the TWI Is the TWI anywere in the world run by the same rules,

its a hard course, believe me, and like i say i was a welder, some of the things i new, but a lot i didnt,

some times they might let you do the 3.0 that is just visual inspection if you have a little welding or supervision just to try and get you up to speed, you would have to ask at the TWI, Thats the welding institute by the way,

you could contact them and ask them, but there is loads of inspectors about now, thai and many indians, we had loads of indians in angola, to be honest most arent very good but they are cheeper then us, and they can still sign off,

good luck

jake

[zurgos]

OP, do as much training as you can and do not listen to the detractors.....

you do your CSWIP 3.1 at the TWI, There is one in thailand at chomburi,

but you have to have welding supervision on your cv to stand a chance of even doing the course,

the course is 5 days the 5th day being all exams,

but if you havnt got welding and supervision they wont let you do the course, well they wont in the uk, but my thinking is the TWI Is the TWI anywere in the world run by the same rules,

its a hard course, believe me, and like i say i was a welder, some of the things i new, but a lot i didnt,

some times they might let you do the 3.0 that is just visual inspection if you have a little welding or supervision just to try and get you up to speed, you would have to ask at the TWI, Thats the welding institute by the way,

you could contact them and ask them, but there is loads of inspectors about now, thai and many indians, we had loads of indians in angola, to be honest most arent very good but they are cheeper then us, and they can still sign off,

good luck

jake

[overherebc]

If you have 40+ years in the oil patch you've got to be close to the 60 patch. I'm pretty sure that getting a start at 60 offshore would be quite difficult.

You might be quite fit and healthy but as far as 'offshore' goes you're in heart attack country as far as they're concerned. Sounds hard I know but they don't want the expense of replacing you at short notice should anything happen when you're on the rig/platform or helicopter/boat. Some at that age are offshore but they have been there a long time and it's cheaper than making them redundant if something goes wrong.

I was answering before on the assumption that you were probably around the 30+ mark but to be honest at 60 or near I really feel you would be wasting time money and effort trying to get offshore here. ( Unless you started work at 5 years old ).

You could as said contact TWI near LamChabang and see what they say.

[pigeonjake]

OP, do as much training as you can and do not listen to the detractors.....

you do your CSWIP 3.1 at the TWI, There is one in thailand at chomburi,

but you have to have welding supervision on your cv to stand a chance of even doing the course,

the course is 5 days the 5th day being all exams,

but if you havnt got welding and supervision they wont let you do the course, well they wont in the uk, but my thinking is the TWI Is the TWI anywere in the world run by the same rules,

its a hard course, believe me, and like i say i was a welder, some of the things i new, but a lot i didnt,

some times they might let you do the 3.0 that is just visual inspection if you have a little welding or supervision just to try and get you up to speed, you would have to ask at the TWI, Thats the welding institute by the way,

you could contact them and ask them, but there is loads of inspectors about now, thai and many indians, we had loads of indians in angola, to be honest most arent very good but they are cheeper then us, and they can still sign off,

good luck

jake

zurgos, who detracting,?

im telling it as it is, i dont want the OP to go waisting his money looking for a job offshore thailand that, he WONT get,

and what do you do may i ask?

[Tonto21]

OP.... Bottom line it's not easy to break into the offshore work scene, it's about having the contacts, experience and qualifications! It goes without saying you first need the Quals do the job, but with no experience and the job market carrying so many people, your going to struggle getting picked up........... Contacts don't come into play till you have work and start meeting people in the job.

Having said all this, if you have the time, money and want then go for it, just don't expect to be handed a job.

Only thing I would say, if you get qualified you will need to cast your net very wide and go anywhere in the World, I've been in NDT and welding inspection for 25 years, the last 9 of which living in Thailand, I can't find work in Thailand, (That's what I want) so.....I have to travel all over the place.

If it's what you want to do, then go for it, it's your dime and time......... Good luck.

[AussieRules]

between deciding it was what I wanted and getting work offshore was about three years of courses and cv sending

[eeeya]

With the current Oil price, work on an oil rig in Thailand for an expat is just about finished (unless your upper management).

The nationalization program has been accelerated by the oil companies to reduce costs.

Edited December 26, 2015 by eeeya