anybody done one of these, or know someone who has done it?

there is a wide variety in terms of quality, conditions, benefits, etc. how did you go about choosing a good one to make sure you got the best for your time and effort?

any good websites or guidebooks, that you know are reliable? i found many sites, but they all 'sound' good and say they are the best. how to tell the pros from the fakers who might hire you and then abuse you in the dungeon on the platform?

2/29/2008 12:37:20 PM

what background do you have?

I graduated from ncsu geology with a guy who works on a rig. I think he works something like a month on, a month off or something to that effect.

2/29/2008 1:03:42 PM

Someone just got done watching There Will Be Blood.

2/29/2008 1:06:53 PM

oxidation is loss

reduction is gain

2/29/2008 1:11:15 PM

I know some people in telecom that have done it. They worked on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

They are flown out to the rig by helo and then work for a number of weeks at a time. After that period, they are flown back to shore (Louisiana) for some down time. They then fly back out when it's time to go back to the rig.

They say the money is good, but the cycle of living on an oil rig for a few weeks at a time gets old. One person said missing that much home/family time away from kids wasn't worth the extra money. Another said that they feel like the world was passing them by while they were sitting on the rig.

In my mind, I compared it to what I imagine the life of a merchant sailor must be like.

2/29/2008 1:33:19 PM

The biggest pain in the ass is NASA constantly asking you to blow up asteroids for them.

2/29/2008 2:22:21 PM

I had an opportunity to work on a rig (somewhere in the world of the company's choosing) owned by Schlumberger. I decided not to pursue it mainly because of other influences, but the job sounded extremely cool. Plus, it's an excellent way to make some serious $texas

2/29/2008 2:24:48 PM

Don't know anybody personally, but from what I've heard a lot of ex-cons get jobs on oil rigs. Not necessarily the best crowd. Money is good though

2/29/2008 3:06:24 PM

0EPII1, one of my best friends spent about a year working for Schlumberger. I'll try to convince him to post something on here, since I really can't answer your specific questions. If you want to know about life on the rig, I can tell you what I know.

Here's what I know about my friend's life on the rig off the top of my head. Some of this might be exaggerated:

He would work on the rig for 4 to 6 weeks at a time. He's supposed to get 2 weeks off between assignments, but Schlumberger could call him up at anytime if they wanted to.

He had some sort of office in Louisiana. I'm not sure how often he was there.

After his first assignment, someone apparently forgot to give him and three other guys something to do. He spent 1 week at his office doing nothing.

He had internet on the rig, a satellite modem of some sort. He IMed me a few times, but the connection was always shaky.

He slept in a sort of three layer bunk bed. I think he had the middle bunk. He didn't sleep as well as he wanted to since people would come and go from the bunks a lot.

When you were on the rig, you were pretty much "at work" the whole time, except when eating or sleeping. I'm not sure how long the shifts were, but I think they were more then 8 hours.

The job he had was fairly repetitive. Once he learned it, it became pretty easy. 70% of the time, he could have honestly been doing something else, and it would work fine. I know he watched a lot of anime, and a lot of other TV shows, like three seasons of Entourage. The idea I had was that he was sitting at a desk, watching some computer models and instrument readings.

The other 30% of the time, he was working hard, and working long hours. I believe he actually worked 24 hours straight once. Some of this was probably manual labor.

Apparently, some crew drilling in Siberia or the Arctic ocean had to fight off some polar bears which had made their way onto the rig. I'm really not sure how that sequence of events occurred.

[Edited on February 29, 2008 at 5:49 PM. Reason : ]

[Edited on February 29, 2008 at 5:51 PM. Reason : ]

2/29/2008 5:48:39 PM

Quote :

"The biggest pain in the ass is NASA constantly asking you to blow up asteroids for them."

I lolled

2/29/2008 5:54:25 PM

i read this as

oil rim jobs

as an additional job benefit, you have the theoretical best outpost possible in case of a world wide zombie outbreak

2/29/2008 6:00:23 PM

harder work than primin tobacco

3/1/2008 5:27:11 PM

i work for an oil refinery company

3/1/2008 6:26:48 PM

Quote :

"Don't know anybody personally, but from what I've heard a lot of ex-cons get jobs on oil rigs. Not necessarily the best crowd. Money is good though"

I work at a consulting engineering firm that works in the construction market (eastern NC coverage for our office) and some of our blue-collar type employees are ex-cons. ALSO many of the people I deal with on job sites are ex-cons and I have to say-- they're some of the best workers. In my experience, now, granted--which may change, they've seen enough of the trouble a man can cause and they don't want any of it. They work hard, and treat people with respect. I only know they're ex-cons after talking with several of them. It's certainly changed my perspective on things.

---
and to clarify: I'm defining "ex-con" as someone who has been incarcerated for more than a month, no matter the crime. I've never met or known a person who's commited murder or anything crazy like that, just folks with a past in drugs and dealing and such.

[Edited on March 2, 2008 at 8:46 AM. Reason : add]

3/2/2008 8:44:09 AM

The money's good, but it's a real pain in the ass when people start drinking your milkshakes.

3/2/2008 1:33:30 PM

how much money are we talkin here?

3/2/2008 4:35:15 PM

I would start by dividing the salary by 18-20 hours a day to see if it is really more lucrative than another job.

3/2/2008 5:01:55 PM

I was just wondering, the consensus seemed to be $texas

3/3/2008 8:45:48 PM

depends what you are on the rig for. i'll inquire further, dad has some oil contacts still....

3/3/2008 10:45:56 PM

crazy arabs

3/3/2008 10:47:24 PM

Quote :

"as an additional job benefit, you have the theoretical best outpost possible in case of a world wide zombie outbreak"

Is not much of the ocean fishless? If so, then you would starve to death in a few years.

That said, most zombies seem to starve to death over a long enough time-frame, so you might be just fine.

3/4/2008 12:24:25 PM

i always thought it would be fun to work as a roughneck on an oil rig.

sure you have like 16hr shifts for months at a time, but you get paid a shit ton and have fun doing your job.

3/4/2008 1:21:43 PM

i would never have fun doing something like that. but everyone is completely different

3/4/2008 1:26:14 PM