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Page added on February 12, 2013
The Most Lucrative Countries For Oil And Gas Workers
The oil and gas industry has been a true bright spot amid the economic downturn. Regions with rampant drilling like south Texas and North Dakota have among the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. In Dickinson, N.D. workers at McDonald’s can get a $300 signing bonus and wages of $15 or more an hour. There’s a booming business in building “man camps” to house all the roughnecks needed to drill wells in the Bakken or Eagle Ford shale. Those guys (and they are almost always guys) up in North Dakota brave frigid temperatures to bore holes in the ground. Since 2008 North Dakota has surpassed Oklahoma, California and Alaska to become the second-biggest oil-producing state in the nation (after Texas), with production upwards of 700,000 barrels per day.
Thanks to all this labor demand, the average pay for an oil and gas worker in the United States has climbed to $124,000, according to Hays, the global headhunting and recruiting consultancy. Hays has released its new survey of worldwide pay trends in the oil & gas sector, finding that the average base salary of oil industry workers climbed 8.5% last year, and 14% over two years to $87,000.
As good as the pay in the U.S. is, however, skilled oilfield workers can make much more overseas where the labor pool is tighter.
The hottest spot for oil & gas workers is Australia, where the global supermajors like Chevron and Shell are in the process of building more than $150 billion worth of projects to export liquefied natural gas. I’m told that the shortage of welders in northwestern Australia is so severe that an experienced metal worker can make well over $250,000 a year. Labor inflation has tacked on billions of dollars to the pricetag of the biggest LNG project there, the $52 billion Gorgon project operated by Chevron.
According to Hays one of the spots where workers are compensated the most in “danger money and hardship allowance” is off the iceberg-strewn arctic coast of Russia, where companies like Rosneft and ExxonMobil are starting to explore for untapped hordes of oil and gas.
As you can see below, the United States ranks just 21st in oil & gas pay. This time of year when the icy winds sweep across North Dakota, there’s bound to be plenty of roughnecks thinking they might enjoy a few years of higher pay and warmer temperatures in the likes of Mexico, Malaysia or even Papua New Guinea.
Oil & gas employment goes up and down with commodity prices, of course, but according to the hundreds of employers who contributed to the Hays survey, 37% say that skills shortages remain a real concern. That’s good news for Hays, which says that its 7,800 worldwide consultants placed 55,000 permanent workers last year and 182,000 in temporary assignments.
Here’s the rankings of the 21 most lucrative countries for oil and gas workers:
1. Australia – $171,000
2. Philippines – $170,000
3. Trinidad & Tobago – $169,000
4. China – $161,000
5. Russia – $151,000
6. Denmark – $149,000
7. Indonesia – $146,000
8. Papua New Guinea – $146,000
9. South Korea – $142,000
10. Thailand – $142,000
11. Nigeria – $141,000
12. Poland – $140,000
13. Azerbaijan – $134,000
14. Vietnam – $134,000
15. Mexico – $132,000
16. Brazil – $131,000
17. Malaysia – $130,000
18. Norway – $129,000
19. Portugal – $126,000
20. Iraq – $125,000
21. United States – $124,000
8 Comments on "The Most Lucrative Countries For Oil And Gas Workers"
keith on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 3:17 am
I didn’t know Forbes became a recruiter for be oil. when did that happen?
keith on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 3:18 am
be is big
Plantagenet on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 3:58 am
Folks who work in the oil patch make real good money. It makes one wonder why states like New York and California fight so hard to stop the oil industry from moving in to frak their shales—-are they afraid of folks getting good jobs or something?
GregT on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 4:45 am
“The oil and gas industry has been a true bright spot amid the economic downturn.”
All of those well paying salaries will allow people to bring their children up with privileged lifestyles, at the expense of all future life on this planet.
Doesn’t sound very bright to me.
DC on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 7:20 am
The O+G industry has always paid well. They can afford to. Several things make this possible. Massive public subsidies to the oil cartel, price-fixing, but most important of all, the O+G cartel is not all the employment intensive when it comes down to it. They can afford some largesse in the form of overly generous wages to its workers. This is not done out of kindness of oilcos hearts. The high wages and low numbers of actual workers tends to make them very loyal to the entire concept of fossil-fuel extraction and use. That loyalty, in turn, expands outwards to include familes, friends, and entire communties that exist of the overly generous wage structure in the industry. Which in turn, is leveraged into political support, both for the industry and creates natural enemies of environmentalists and sustainability adovates to fight.
Long story short, they ‘buy’ the un-questioning loyalty of there largely under-educated workforce, in much the same way they buy entire governments. And, yes, I wont deny, its an effective strategy. If I were paid 125k to do my job, I likely wouldnt bad mouth it either, probably not even in private. In fact, those wages would effectively remove from my mind, any negative thoughts I might have about my ‘jobs’ larger impacts.
BillT on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 11:15 am
The article doesn’t mention the $100+ PER DAY cost of living in many of these areas or the good chance of being killed in some of these countries. After all, Americans are not well liked in many places in the world thanks to the Empire’s boot. Asians can work there because they are obviously NOT Westerners.
And, no Planet, the conditions are NOT good or there would not be a need for them in these areas. Any job with a lack of takers is a job with many dangers or faults. Then there are taxes, etc. And the fact that these jobs are not going to last long.
Arthur on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 6:12 pm
I am extremely sceptical about the numbers mentioned. Sure, it is a lucrative sector, but… define ‘oil and gas worker’? Are we talking about geologists or engineers, OK. But the guys in the overalls and hard hats? Maybe the get this high salary because they are away from home all the time.
CNN comes with probably more realistic figures, $99k:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/economy/oil_workers/index.htm
And Australia topping the list… come on.
And Bill, you are exgagerating the danger Americans are exposed to. The worst that can happen is that somebody is throwing a shoe at you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvez9hfxaM
(Paul Bremer, the ‘butcher of Bagdad’, in UK parliament, he almost catched the 2nd one, 0:30)
And gay ambassadors in an islamic war zone like Lybia is obviously asking for trouble, but that is about it.
Arthur on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 8:34 pm
I am extremely sceptical about the numbers mentioned. Sure, it is a lucrative sector, but… define ‘oil and gas worker’? Are we talking about geologists or engineers, OK. But the guys in the overalls and hard hats? Maybe the get this high salary because they are away from home all the time.
CNN comes with probably more realistic figures, $99k:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/economy/oil_workers/index.htm
And Australia topping the list… come on.
P.S. Noticed that posts with two links still get moderated, often after the article has disappeared under the horizon. Moderator please delete previously posted post now under moderation.