subject: Offshore Drilling Rig Jobs: 5 Long Term Prospects [print this page] When one is about to take up a job in an offshore oil rig, he is often faced with the inevitable question: What are my long term prospects? Even though there are a lot of rumors floating around that there s a slump in employment in oil rigs, this is strictly not true. While global giants like Schlumberger has announced cutting 5000 jobs, it also has an order back log of $1.77 billion. Now, who is going to meet those orders? In fact, the maximum layoffs are taking place in the finance and sales segments of oil companies; retiring personnel and normal attrition due to most people leaving because they find the job unsuitable or too tough.
The following are the long term prospects of offshore oil rig jobs:
*Most oil companies are shifting to or exploring newer fields where cost of operations is much less. The fact that existing oil fields are being shut down or idling does not imply that people are being laid off. Rather, the newer sites are always in a hiring mode.
*Global giants like Transocean and Exxon are also hiring and there is always a possibility of landing lucrative jobs with them provided you are willing to go overseas and even to some very inhospitable areas like interior Brazil or northern Canada. The good news is that since on land rigs are producing much less oil at very high costs, these companies are now shifting their operations offshore more and more and hence, recruiting trained people all the time.
*There is an all pervading fear that global oil resources are gradually getting exhausted and this is going to lead to a situation of acute unemployment in future. However, the fact is according to the peak oil theory put forward by Hubbert, oil production being shaped like a bell curve, usually declines after reaching a peak. But geological experts feel that there are still enough reserves in the world that lie largely unexplored and should they be tapped successfully, will ensure oil supplies for at least another century.
*It's also a fact that drillable oil at $10 a barrel is exhausted. In future it will rise to at least $60 a barrel for oil that will be extracted from offshore ocean fields, oil sands or shale. This will ensure steady employment in future but obviously at a higher cost. So your fears of being suddenly unemployed are rather unfounded.
Barclays has reported that oil companies have invested a total of $400 billion on oil exploration and production worldwide in 2009 and a further $20 trillion will be spent in the next twenty five years, according to the International Energy Agency. This speaks volumes of the positive long term prospects of the global oil industry in the foreseeable future.
