What Working On An Offshore Oil Drilling Ship Is Like

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Global Offshore Drilling Market

Working on an offshore oil drilling ship is not like your regular nine to five job. For one thing your work week may be as long as a month and you are stuck on the drill ship with nowhere to go since you are miles away from land. You may commute to work in a helicopter or large offshore crew boat out of a port anywhere in the world.

The work week may be as long as a month – image by grist.com

Your co-workers on an offshore drillship may be from a dozen or more different countries and speak a half dozen languages.

You pass your time, as I am right now, on the internet (If you are lucky enough to have a satellite connection you can use freely), watching TV, eating and sleeping on your 12 or 8 hours off. You cannot leave to go home except for even the most dire of family emergencies since helicopter rides cost several thousand dollars. 

Your co-workers on an offshore drillship may be from a dozen or more different countries – image by pinterest.com

Even then you may need to wait a day or even a week or more until weather or sea conditions permit a crew boat or helicopter arrival.

Offshore drillship work pays much higher than working on a land based oil drilling rig. The level of experience required to work on one is also much higher.

You may have to wait a day or week for helicopter arrival – image by airbus.com

Safety Number One Job

Safety is stressed above anything on a drill ship. There are more things that can go wrong, and the fact that the ship may be heaving a bit, making work much more perilous than on a stable land drilling rig. There are constant evacuation and ship fire musters and drills.

Most workers on an oil and gas drill ship have over ten years of experience. Most have worked on land and on jack up semi-submersible rigs before working on the drillship.

Now let’s look at a day in here:

The oil and gas industry is still weak from the recession but things are picking up in terms of offshore drilling activity. Companies like Transocean, which operates drill ships around the globe, may have new job postings on their website.

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