Do You Have What It Takes To Survive Offshore Life

Offshore Jobs — By Shopping Blogs on January 5, 2010 1:02 pm

Most of us are unfamiliar with the demands of jobs on oil rigs and have probably only seen references to the hard work this career entails. In fact, movies like Armageddon have portrayed oil rig jobs to be much like the last frontier for cowboys and surly men. Other shows like Dirty Jobs document the roughneck life and mindset it takes to live offshore and work surrounded by nothing but ocean.

If you find outdoor life more enjoyable than playing office politics, then jobs on oil rigs may be up your ally. But it takes much more than an outdoorsman to enjoy the life of an oil rigger.

The salary is what usually draws someone into considering the life of a roughneck. In the US, the average salary of jobs on oil rigs as of 2010 was $71,000. This is well over the average American salary of about $35,000 yearly.

While the handsome salary may draw someone into exploring the life aboard an offshore oil rig, it is not enough to keep a man there who doesn’t have the determination and mindset to adjust to life offshore.

The mental stability of a man is tested as he sets out to sea to live aboard a floating city. While the oil rig is large, it is also a constant reminder that he is only a few inches away from the ocean, and constantly surrounded by nothing but water. Getting your sea legs aboard an oil rig in only half as hard at adjusting to the lack of dry land and the freedom to roam.

Aside from adjusting to life away from dry land, he must also adjust to living on the job. There is no commute to and from the office when the ‘office’ is manning a drill hundreds of feet below sea level.

Cities on seas, or oil rigs, are no place for uncertainty or play and every crew member must stay keenly aware of his surroundings at all times. Most oil rigs will have will hold routine, mandatory safety briefings in order to keep everyone on their toes. This however, cannot guarantee that accidents won’t occur.

Accidents in jobs on oil rigs usually occur from human error or negligence. In some instances, Mother Nature causes accidents, but weather conditions are closely monitored and prepared for and most often, disaster is avoided.

Total situational awareness is employed and taught to everyone on board. Everyone from the deck crew to subsea enginerrs to the caterers must be taught to mind their surroundings and follow procedures in the event of an evacuation or incident. There is always a backup plan and secondary plan when it comes to ensuring the safety of everyone aboard the city at sea.

The bottom line is that jobs on oil rigs are providing the rest of us a means to power the word we live in. These jobs and hard workers are not to be underestimated and certainly not taken lightly should you consider employment offshore.

For the rest of us, who will never understand the true tests and will it takes to survive on an oil rig, watching blockbuster hits and documentaries are as close as we can come to realizing the hardships these men, and yes, women, endure to bring food to their family’s table and energy to power our lives.

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