# Oil Rig Salaries



## phreebsd

I know many in the the ATV community works in the oil business. 
what's the avg salary for some positions on an oil rig? (i would list them but i dont know any. I think i heard of tool pusher. that's about it)


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## jctgumby

it varies pretty wildly from company to company.


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## BrutemanAl

My cousins husband works on the rigs in the North Sea of the coast of Scotland, not sure exactly of his job title , but he refers to it as "making mud pies all day" . For a salary he told me 2 yrs ago he makes 150,000 pound a year , Canadian thats about 400,000 $ a year for you Americans give or take a few bucks . Pretty good money , but the job is not for everyone , he is away from his family for 3 weeks at a time and then home for 2 and back out on the rig he goes . He emailed me pics a few months ago and they showed the rig he was on at the time , think it was the Galaxy , from his bed he took the picture and it was during a storm and the rig was at a 45 degree angle.The north sea is crazy crazy !!!


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## Stogi

400k and away from the wife 3 weeks at at time? Sign me up....lol


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## madppcs

Im an Electronics tech and the average salary is 100K year. I work overseas so I make considerbaly more than that. But it varies from company to company.


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## sloboy

Not going to post any numbers but I am a chief mechanic in Brazil an I have no complaints about my salary. Entey level (roustabout or seaman) is about $60000 a year. Deep water drilling rigs pay more than shallow water. Everyone is hiring right now.


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## countryboy61283

When I was a kid I worked on a drilling rig for 2 years at $18.00 a hour 50+ hours a week


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## KMKjr

countryboy61283 said:


> When I was a kid I worked on a drilling rig for 2 years at $18.00 a hour 50+ hours a week


When I was a kid.....that was 2 weeks ago!!


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## browland

Stogi said:


> 400k and away from the wife 3 weeks at at time? Sign me up....lol


 lmfao !! ill go with ya!!


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## madppcs

sloboy said:


> Not going to post any numbers but I am a chief mechanic in Brazil an I have no complaints about my salary. Entey level (roustabout or seaman) is about $60000 a year. Deep water drilling rigs pay more than shallow water. Everyone is hiring right now.


Im in Brazil right now as well. I work for Ensco on their new Drillship. What rig you on?


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## LM83

I was a shaker hand, salary was $85,000 US. Wish I wouldn't have quit. I'm in land production now, sucks. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sloboy

madppcs said:


> Im in Brazil right now as well. I work for Ensco on their new Drillship. What rig you on?


 
Cajun Express,,yall in Rio?? We crew change out of Barra de Tijuca


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## wcs61

jctgumby said:


> it varies pretty wildly from company to company.


And location to location. Those in say Africa make more due to the rigors of traveling and in the case of Nigeria, the dangers of working there. Compared to working in the USA.


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## wcs61

BrutemanAl said:


> My cousins husband "making mud pies all day" . The north sea is crazy crazy !!!


Humm wonder if he is a Mud Engineer? The North Sea? They can have that job.

Salaries determine if your an Expat or local. Local's make pennies compared to Expats.


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## Polaris425

I know when I worked for LeTourneau back in the day (built the last super gorilla #8, I think they named it the Bob Palmer) The guys who were going out to work on rigs (crane repair jobs mostly, and leg-up jobs in corpus christy) would get TRIPPLE pay while gone....

It's not always the $ amount per hour they get paid, it's b/c they work these boys so many hours, OT, DT, and TT start to add up.... I was making $800-$1000 a week after taxes... But I only made like $10.10/hr.... so You can add up how much we were freaking working..... 7/12's for a while.. that sucked!


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## wcs61

Gorilla 8? We just let Gorilla 7 go a few months ago. It was headed to the North Sea from what I was told. BIG as.. rig. LOL First job here and they punched through while pre-loading. Put a million dollar dent in the jacket.

So you've been to Vicksburg Pol?


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## Polaris425

Lived there for 12 years... lol. Worked as a welder/fitters helper for about a year. And yeah, they are HUGE rigs... lol

Some of these are from when we walked it down into the river... I greased that front leg, first in the water.


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## 03maxpower

Hard to appriciate something that size from just a pic


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## phreebsd

man these oil companies really pay well. 
so you all work very long hour shifts?


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## creed

Not sure if they have any chemical or petro-chemical refineries where you live, but I've been working in the plants for 12 yrs now.. Starting hourly rate for a crafts man is around $28 but they will make $80K easily a yr with OT .. I'm in project controls now and the past 2 yrs I've made well over $100K, just changed companies and if the project I'm on last till the end of next yr I'll be on track to make close to $200K. I'm home every night, work 50hr weeks, off on weekends.


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## Polaris425

03maxpower said:


> Hard to appriciate something that size from just a pic


Very true....

Maybe these 2 will help a little more, Im standing right in front of a winch, and an anchor taking the pic. Winch was taller than me, Im 6'2. Holding the camera at eye level so you can figure the middle of the pic is about eye level for me.


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## jctgumby

I work for Noble Drilliing. I am a Safety and Training Supervisor and I make pretty good money. Roughnecked for 6 years here and made around 65k. Roustabouts make about 60k.


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## phreebsd

forgive me for my curiosity but what are all the job names like roustabout and roughneck?


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## Col_Sanders

madppcs said:


> Im an Electronics tech and the average salary is 100K year. I work overseas so I make considerbaly more than that. But it varies from company to company.


What kind of equipment do you work on? I've been an electronics tech for the past 10 years working on comm gear, RADAR, and crypto (8 Navy, 2 DoD). I'm not really looking for a job right now but ya never know.


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## wcs61

Col. you need to try a company like Sonamet. The local Navigation company used for rig moves. 

RIGZONE has all the answers.

Have two on board now preparing to move tomorrow.


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## 650Brute

I'm in the wrong line of work...


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## jctgumby

Roustabout = Entry level labor position. Mostly works with the cranes, assisting the roughnecks (Drill Floor Crew), general maintenance and cleaning on the decks.

Roughneck = Next level labor positions. Working on the drilling floor. Handling all pipe and tubulars and first in line of general Well Control and Well Safety. Also known as floorhands, shakerhands, derrickmen. All of these are different specialty jobs contained in the general referral of Roughnecks.


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## Crawfishie!!

I have worked both sides of oil and gas now. Started working for halliburton and after 4 years there I only made $12.50 an hour. Went to work for Rowan Drilling. Started out as a roustabout at about $60,000 ended up as a derrickman making around $85,000 a year. Now working in a oil refinery making a good chunk of change...considerable amount more than working offshore on "the shelf".....deep water.


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## creed

Crawfishie!! said:


> I have worked both sides of oil and gas now. Started working for halliburton and after 4 years there I only made $12.50 an hour. Went to work for Rowan Drilling. Started out as a roustabout at about $60,000 ended up as a derrickman making around $85,000 a year. Now working in a oil refinery making a good chunk of change...considerable amount more than working offshore on "the shelf".....deep water.


Crawfishie - did I read on another forum that you (not your fault) crashed your Gade??


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## Crawfishie!!

creed said:


> Crawfishie - did I read on another forum that you (not your fault) crashed your Gade??


Yeah...that's right. Not exactly crashed it, but close. 

Sorry guys didn't mean to hi-jack this thread.


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## phreebsd

so you definitely make more money offshore than onshore at a refinery?

and thanks for layin out those terms jctgumby.


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## wcs61

Boats on location..getting ready to pull legs free.....darn that means no internet for a couple of days. Hold down the fort Big D!
















Second photo is from my Fire In The Sky Album. African sunset. In the background is TOR (Transocean Richardson)


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## bayou_boy_22

wcs61 said:


> Boats on location..getting ready to pull legs free.....darn that means no internet for a couple of days. Hold down the fort Big D!
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> Second photo is from my Fire In The Sky Album. African sunset. In the background is TOR (Transocean Richardson)


I worked on the Richardson for 1.5 years in the Ivory Coast. Haven't seen it since 2005.


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## jctgumby

phreebsd said:


> and thanks for layin out those terms jctgumby.


 
No problem Phreebsd.

Here is a pic of the drillship I am working on now, the Noble Bully 1. At the moment we are crossing the Mid-Atlantic headed for the Carribean. We are going to anchor up at Curacao for 2 or 3 days to take on food and fuel, then it is on to the Gulf of Mexico.


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## Crawfishie!!

phreebsd said:


> so you definitely make more money offshore than onshore at a refinery?
> 
> and thanks for layin out those terms jctgumby.


I don't....I make almost double here at our refinery than offshore.


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## speedman

You think this is a good job for a kid that's 21 and hasn't gone to college yet? I wanna goto college for diesel mechanic for boats.


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## Crawfishie!!

I will honestly say this. It brought a whole new meaning to the word WORK! I can say it was a good job for me and I did enjoy it and the money. However if you don't plan to stay in the oil field line of work, I'd go to school. Yes the money is awesome, but education is paramount to securing a better job later on in your life. 
I just had this same talk with my son 18, a few days ago. Funny thing, he leaves in feb to attend UTI in Dallas for diesel mechanic course. Good luck to you man. Follow your gut and think about this decision, it's not easy to make.


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## wcs61

speedman said:


> You think this is a good job for a kid that's 21 and hasn't gone to college yet? I wanna goto college for diesel mechanic for boats.


I'd say you go to college and then hire on with a major oil company. I know Chevron will hire guys and gals straight out of JuCo to work in the Gulf as trainee's. That's the way they seem to prefer newbies so they can train them the way they like. Also their new practice is to only hire people who have a college degree. So do the college and by-pass the grungy work if you intend to enter the oil patch.

Production or Drilling?
Production is the better of the two


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