How To Get A Job On A Drill Ship
In offshore waters where it is too deep to drill for oil or gas using a jack-up drilling rig. or where it is not practical to tow a semi submersible, offshore oil drilling ships are used. These giant drill ships are essentially an offshore drilling platform that can be moved like a ship. They are much more complex than a regular offshore drilling rig and the experience level of the oilfield workers doing these offshore jobs is generally higher than anywhere else.
How Drill Ships Work
Offshore Drill Ship Used For Oil and Gas Exploration
Drill ships, such as the one in the photo above, use sophisticated, powerful thrusters, seafloor cables and anchors to hold the ship in position while a drilling assembly is held in place over spot on the seafloor. There are many layers of safety equipment, including automatic breakaway and shutoff valves in case the drill ship is blown off course by a storm.
Kinds Of Jobs On Offshore Oil Drill Ships
Offshore oil drilling ship jobs include regular oilfield roughnecks, who do the heavy manual labor. Floor hand jobs, derrick man jobs, driller jobs and toolpusher jobs are among the direct drilling positions on an offshore drill ship. You will find most of the same jobs that exist on a drilling rig on an drill ship, but with added responsibilities. There are employees who maintain and calibrate the thrusters, navigators that maintain the ship’s position, radar watch officers, satellite technician, remote operated vehicle technicians that control underwater robotic equipment and more. You’ll find the job of a mud engineer, LWD technicians, mudloggers, cooks, housekeeping and many more on an offshore drill ship.
You can find a good description of the kinds of oilfield jobs on a drill ship here: Kinds of Jobs In Oil and Gas Drilling
What Are Jobs Like On A Drill Ship?
While most inland barge and jackup rig workers come and go by work boat, workers on a drill ship will most often arrive and depart from work on a helicopter or larger, ocean going crew vessel. This is because most drill ships operate far from land. Work schedules are anywhere from two weeks on and two weeks at home, to one month on the job and one month at home. The latter schedule is the most common for overseas drill ships where transportation is a major expense for oil companies. Drill ship workers are highly paid professionals. Salaries for workers on a drill ship, from housekeeping all the way to the company man in charge are generally higher than for land rigs or semi-submersible rig jobs. You may find a virtual “United Nations” of workers on a drill ship, with many different nationalities represented. Your drilling manager may be from Scotland, the driller from Texas, housekeeping from South Africa, and so on. English is generally the main language used on most drill ships for large multinational companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
Often there are one or even two galleys where workers eat. An exercise room may be available so employees can stay fit. You may find one or more TV rooms where workers can relax when off tour. Food is often of high restaurant quality since morale and food often go hand in hand.
Life on a drill ship is punctuated by being mustered out of your bunk for fire drills, evacuation drills, listening announcements on the loudspeaker which is throughout the ship about drilling activity and warnings. Drill ship workers live much as sailors do, in bunk beds or small berths with several other workers. In most cases only the top level workers, such as the captain, company man, toolpusher, etc, may have a private cabin.
Here is a video showing just why working aboard a drill ship in not like any other kind of offshore drilling. This ship has drill pipe in the hole, it is not underway.
Fast Tube by Casper
Salaries and Where To Look For Drill Ship Jobs In The Oil and Gas Industry
Salaries are generally very good for workers on oil and gas drilling ships. You may find wages of ten to thirty percent higher than other kinds of offshore rigs and as much as fifty percent higher than oil rigs on shore.
The oil and gas drilling industry is still recovering from the economic slump but is getting on it’s feet again with oil prices rising over $75 a barrel. The best places to look for drill ship jobs are sites like Rigzone, Texas Oilfield Job and in the classified section of papers in areas like Houston, Corpus Christi, Mobile, New Orleans and other major oil and gas port cities.
