I’ve recently had several younger folks ask me about entry level openings in O&G offshore. They heard there is a new gold rush but they aren’t aware of the current requirements. Neither am I, though I seriously doubt there is a gold rush going on.
No gold rush, just another part of the endless cycle, only people who are making decent money are the officers
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I wouldn’t call it a gold rush either, but it’s a good time for new blood to break in. An OS won’t be setting the world on fire pay wise though.
Most of the big companies are paying ABs and QMEDs in the high 300s to low 400s a day though.
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TWIC, HUET (or THUET depending on the company), and RigPass are pretty much the bare minimum to break in to the GoM oil patch.
I’m not entirely sure what the entry level job market is like - fair from what I can tell. Pay is starting to get hot again for a lot of positions though.
RigZone, Core Group, Spencer Ogden, Prime Ocean are all decent places for your buddies to start snooping around at.
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Just curious, what’s decent money for a rating?
Ours deckhands are at $275 (OS) and $350 (AB)
Working 2/1 they make more than I ever did on deck by a large margin.
In reality that’s as much as some Officers at other non oilfield companies.
Also as much as nurses, more than teachers, twice as much as jobs that require a degree.
For a job where you can push the upper boundaries of laziness to new unexplored heights, well you can’t really beat that on land.
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Just need a TWIC. The rest the company will pay for if needed.
Having BT “Basic Training” and VPDSD coming in will make an OS more valuable. Larger companies like ECO will actually put you in both of these classes, free of charge, before even shipping out if you are hired.
At $350/day for 12 hour day. That’s about $25/hour not that great. Working 2/1 means you work a LOT more hours a year than a RN. Apples and oranges.
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Making 6 figures doesn’t go as far as it used to go as we all know… However, most ABs and QMEDs can find 400 a day if not a bit more. At 400 a day and working a 2/1 schedule that means you are at 96k a year assuming no holiday pay and not working extra. That’s damn good money working as a rating anyway you slice it…even considering whatever hoops anyone had to jump thru getting their various stcw endorsements.
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True but 2/1 is not much of a life if you have a family.
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What are the Gulf companies paying for good engineers?
1000 a day plus seniority and travel pay,
Chief’s pay
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Haha, good one. I think we all know they don’t work 12 hour days.
We are lucky to get 3 hours of maintenance work and an hour of cleaning. Deckies spend 70-90% of their work day trying to get out of work.
Where else can you give that level of performance and make that kind of money?
No 2/1 has never been my thing as a family man, and I always refused that schedule personally…but some like it.
You’re right it is an extreme comparison…I simply used RN to illustrate the ridiculousness of your statement that ratings aren’t making decent money…
An RN’s work is astronomically more important in my opinion and requires a 2-4 year degree.
To be a deck ape, you just need to apply for a TWIC/MMC and take a couple one day Basic Safety classes and learn creative ways how to get out of your job on a daily basis.
If our deck apes only do 5 hours of work per day (this is typical) and work 28/14 …take at a minimum Sundays off (they often take more days off than that because of weather) they’re working
at the very most 1280 hours per year.
Compare that to a -very demanding mind you…RN job of 8 hour work days (Im being generous, probably more like 10-12) even with two days off per week (not typical I bet) and, well you get well over 2200 hours worked.
Of course, not all deckies are complete garbage. I’ve known and worked with some that out in a solid 10-12 hours of hard labor per day. But those are very hard to come by these days.
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Yeah you got me there…but some guys like the 2/1 or need to work the 2/1.
So 400 a day even time comes out to 73k a year. Still good money for a rating, working half the year.
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Assistants are anywhere from 550-900 a day depending on experience and license. Chief 1000 plus.
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To be honest and from personal experience, I wouldn’t advise any newbie especially a wiper to start from GOM. Yes you can move fast at GOM but it’s really hard to get the actual “HANDS ON TRAINING” & experience at GOM especially if you’re a wiper or to some extent a QMED. Yes you’ll get a lot of watches but for actual Mechanical hands on is hard to get. That’s my personal opinion though. The reason being that, on most of the GOM boats the Engineers job for the most part is to identify the problem and have it fixed at the port by the port engineers & etc.
Working as a wiper at MSC (Military Sealift Command), i got a lot of hands on training & experience in replacing auto filters, steering gear filters, fixing fork trucks, oil waste & portable water transfer, working on EDG’s & MDG’s, The hydrophore, Junior Engineer’s runs. The list is long for the things i learned and this helped me a lot and gave me the confidence to move up.
I will surely and probably sail at the GOM again when i become an Officer but for rating, i think if you really want to learn and know your stuff, then go to Deep sea on these big ships then come back to GOM with your knowledge to have a relaxing job at GOM and make good money. It’s not always about the money in opinion especially for a newbie. The goal should be to learn, learn, learn, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade then the money will follow.
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they can’t even do that
Well, don’t let them come for my head man. I didn’t insinuate that. Hehehe lol 
Ow wow now they are going to believe it. 
In Chouest world it’s only true if a man says it
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