Entry Level Fracking Jobs in Oil & Gas

Oil companies may be desperate to hire greenhand job seekers, even without oil rig experience.

At times oil companies, drilling for oil, especially in fracking boom affected areas like North Dakota or Texas, happen to grow literally desperate to hire greenhand workers, without oil rig experience. They agree to offer jobs to complete beginners, whose only experience or training could be limited to watching a couple of instructional videos on Youtube. You could get hired with absolutely no prior experience on oil rigs even in the lowest role of Roustabout - this is how they call general laborer across the oil drilling industry, in Williston, ND, too. Things do happen.

Last summer lots of the frustrated people, who felt they were underpaid at their jobs during the recession's worst moments, would quit their jobs in the states, where they lived, and rushed to Williston, ND, lured to travel at long distance by the stories about what the other people had earned, doing oil rig work in North Dakota, including some fracking jobs, available for people without experience. To be specific about the earning potential on oil drilling rigs for the inexperienced, let me tell you that last summer hourly wages on oil rigs near Williston, ND, for the positions like Roustabout or Leasehand with absolutely no previous experience on oil rigs, started at the impressive pay rate of $US 24 per hour. The oil rig servicing companies, operating locally, looked very little at who they were hiring. Newcomers could get hired even with their criminal record being not too clean, and even provided trainee job as Assistant Driller. There was a severe shortage of hands, but the vacancies had to be filled at every cost. One of the contractors went so far that the company launched sort of an accelerated assistant driller training program for candidates with driller experience in related indusries, for example coal mining.

Therefore, basically, if you could prove you would sustain working 18-hour day, the employers were eager to keep paying you those 24 dollars per hour for as many months as you could last, performing duties and responsibilities of Roustabout, Roughneck, or whatever role you were hired or promoted to, with salary being adjusted accordingly. It's all about the fantastic salary that could be earned, working on oilfields in the vicinity of North Dakota town Williston. But it's not always like that. The oil job boom in Williston that I witnessed, lasted for about five months, then the oil companies got the wage rates reduced down to $US 20 per hour, and finally just laid off several thousands of oilfield workers because of an abrupt reduction of the price of the crude oil per barrel because of overproduction.

If, as a greenhand oil job applicant, you stated in your Resumé/CV you were holder of a valid CDL and your physical condition really allowed you to perform hard manual labor for long hours, or better you had experience of doing hard labor as, say, coal miner, your chances were almost 100% you would be hired for a position of a Fracturing Equipment Operator, where the salary, which I still manage to be in time to grab, was 28 bucks per hour at the entry level. Yes, you heard it right, though many guys may be surprised to hear that Hydraulic Fracturing Equipment Operator or simply Frac Equipment Operator on oil rigs could be an entry-level position, even if you previously didn't have a clue about the nature of working in whatever position on oil rigs.

Sharing Experience:

Working on oil rigs in South Texas, fracking jobs

An entry-level oil rig worker says: Exactly at this time I work for Schlumberger as a Fracking Equipment Operator close to Alice, Texas. As you correctly said, Frack Operator is an entry level position, which greenhand candidate could be hired for without previous experience in oil & gas at all, in none of the positions. Schlumberger has a scheme of hiring, which suggests that once selected, a greenhand candidate is enrolled to 2-week courses on practical driving to get their CDL class A license. But it's not like that with the rest of oil drilling companies that provide frac jobs in TX, ND, or elsewhere. At least, I didn't hear about other employers doing the same at their own expense. It's very much like part of this oil drilling contractor hiring policy. After the courses graduates should be able to drive 18-wheeler. The starting salary for Frac Equipment Operator is somewhere $US 15 per hour, having to work 6 days straight, normally on extended schedule with everything exceeding the standard 40 hrs a week being considered overtime, typically resulting in yourself having to work somewhere from 65 to over 100 hrs a week. Overtime rates, of course, apply. Another good thing about frac oil jobs with this oil drilling contractor, is bonuses, but until you stop wearing green hard hat, you don't get any, only white hat workers get them.

The bonus is divided equally among all white hats in the crew. $US 300 bonus plus $US 750 weekly salary, thus normally they earn $US 1,000 a week, make the rest of the calculations yourself. Some of these bonus eligible tough guys are less than 21 years old, and it is to them that greenhands have to prove themselves before they hopefully will start getting their share of the bonus either. The other common jobs besides frac crew on oil rigs here are Coiled Tubing jobs like coiled tubing technicians and operations assistants, COA's (Assistant Cement Operator), Electicians, Pipe Fitter job, Wireline Operator, Onsite Gas Fueller (need HAZMAT clearance), and more, many of whom neither belong to oil drilling, nor to rigging team. The weather conditions is absolutely terrific, especially in summer, when with the air temperature being around 100 degrees many of the workers have to do their job close to the heated machinery, so workers never stop drinking water, every 15 to 20 minutes you feel the thirst. Injuries, slip and fall traumas, burns etc. are not infrequent, but these are associated risk you're being paid for either.

Entry Level Oil Rig Roustabout jobs in the Middle East

Are there any Roustabout entry-level jobs in the Middle East oil drilling industry? In the USA, Canada, UK, Mexico, Brazil, and even in Norway, where the offshore salaries are beyond comparison, and where you have to work, if hired for offshore oil rigs, just 3 months out of 12 in the year, the entry-level opportunities for greenhand Roustabouts without previous experience are available. Now what about the Middle East? Awaiting for the feedback, be the first to start discussion.

tags: Fracking Jobs, Alaska, Instrument Technician, Offshore Platform vacancies in oil & gas