Tips to Find a Job In Oil and Gas Industry
September 3, 2011 by admin
Filed under Other Jobs
The oil and gas industry provides energy and necessary chemicals to allow the smooth running of transportation, industry and houses. It earns considerable tax and export revenues to aid in supporting the economy and provides employment for thousands of people across the globe.
The oil and gas industry is at the forefront of new technology, designed to reduce the cost of discovering and manufacturing oil and gas. Many employees in oil and gas jobs are located offshore on fixed production platforms, mobile drilling rigs, and floating production storage and offloading units (FPSOs).
A range of companies employ offshore oil and gas workers. These include operating companies, drilling companies, major contractors, FPSO operators, and service companies.
Operating companies possess exploration and production licences and run production facilities. Some of these companies are well-known, others less so. The majority of operating companies are international companies, meaning that they advertise oil and gas jobs across the globe.
Drilling companies, as their name suggests, employ people to perform drilling work. They typically run and maintain mobile drilling rigs. Similarly to operating companies, drilling companies operate on a global level.
Major contractors provide essential maintenance services to operating companies. Major contractors are large employers of offshore personnel. Contractors may be small or large in size and may be national or international in their operation.
FPSO operators run and maintain floating production storage and offloading units which are essentially large vessels. FPSO operators are fully-equipped to process oil and gas.
Service companies provide operating and drilling companies with the specialist assistance they require. Service companies include but are not limited to well service firms, cementing companies, drilling mud suppliers, and well testing specialists.
Oil and gas jobs are typically categorised as upstream jobs or downstream jobs. The upstream oil sector is associated with the search, recovery and manufacture of crude oil and natural gas. This sector is also referred to as the exploration and production (E&P) sector. The downstream oil sector is associated with the refining of crude oil, and the distribution and sale of natural gas and crude oil derivatives. Derivatives include but are not limited to petrol, jet fuel, diesel oil, and asphalt.
Employees in oil and gas jobs in the upstream sector are involved in searching for prospective underground and underwater oil and gas fields. Their work may involve the drilling of exploratory wells, and the subsequent bringing of the crude oil and/or raw natural gas up to the surface. Exploration, pipeline, subsea, mechanical, commercial, electrical, process, and quality, health, safety and environmental experts can therefore find jobs within the upstream sector.
The downstream sector employs people to work in oil refineries, petroleum product distribution, and petrochemical plants. The downstream oil industry provides thousands of products to consumers, including petrol, plastics, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides, to name just a few. Experts with knowledge of petrochemicals, bio-fuels, renewable energy, refining, consultancy, structural and health and safety, liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and terminal operations can therefore find downstream oil and gas jobs.
Oil and gas jobs are available both on a permanent and contractual basis. Jobs are available through direct application to the oil and gas companies themselves or through specialist oil and gas recruitment agencies. The minimum age for offshore oil and gas workers in the UK is 18 years.
Offshore oil and gas jobs are often considered more challenging than onshore work; workers must rely on helicopter travel to get to and from the shore. Some offshore installations, such as FPSOs, can be relocated, meaning that working locations are not always constant. The majority of oil and gas workers work 12 hour shifts. Due to the nature of their work, offshore employees work two weeks offshore before being granted rest periods at their homes ashore.
Original article at articlesbase