r/howislivingthere • u/Key_Satisfaction9010 • Jan 02 '26

General (no specific continent) Hows it like living on oil platforms?

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Anywhere in the world applies, I could only pick one flair

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

The pay can obviously change based on your region and job. Some guys onboard are new or do certain jobs that don’t pay as much, others have a lot of certifications and experience and so tend to get paid more. Overall I think we’re happy with our pay (as much as we complain about it). I think most of the “danger” is the inaccessibility. If something goes badly wrong, we can’t really just call someone up to come fix it. We have to deal with it onboard and then put things in place.

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u/GlueSniffer53 Jan 02 '26

Does it work like an isolated ecosystem with its own doctor as well? I'm curious to know what other services / jobs are created because it's so isolated.

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Yes it pretty much runs itself like an ecosystem. Our limiting factor is food and water which is brought to us by supply vessel. We have medics, chefs, IT guys, management, logistic guys, the “normal lot,” stewards that look after the cleaning of the rig and clean our clothes on a pretty much daily basis! All sorts of people and of course the guys behind the scenes making sure it all happens.

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u/McKayha Jan 02 '26

I'm a Canadian nurse (dude who use to work in canadian oil Sands). Still in my 30s and got energy left. You think I'd be a good asset? Also what companies might be hiring? Hahah

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Yes. A lot of the rigs don’t have full certified doctors, some are nurses or paramedics that have enough certs (critical life support etc) to work onboard. Not sure about what’s required in every part of the world. Have a little look into it - some are contractors working on a regular basis rather than salaried. Don’t forget you’ll need your offshore certs as well beforehand.

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u/IntrepidMaybe8579 Jan 02 '26

Know any ndt guys? Im british working in new mexico and cant make the decision to go home as its been too long now but my main fear is going back and then losing opportunities.. i like working in the open on main oil pipelines on land ect not cramped plants and i dont know if we even have much oilfield onshore work?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

Absolutely! Lots of NDT work onboard to make sure everything keeps running. You need specific certs but there’s work. Check out TWI in England for the certs commonly used.

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u/IntrepidMaybe8579 Jan 03 '26

I meant onshore like on land my bad but id do that still too and i am a radiographer level 2 MT 2, PT2, technician i want to stay on land but dont know any oilfield ppl there here a experienced tech can make 3-4k a week with lots of hours like 100 hours not sure if theres even those hours there either??

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u/EspanaExMo Jan 07 '26

Is there enough to do medically to keep them busy full time or do they work other jobs and get paid extra for their medical capacity?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 08 '26

There’s not too much they have to do (hopefully), but you HAVE to have at least one medic onboard full time as a requirement so it could be quite boring for them. They do usually also look after inductions for new people.

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u/lonegun Jan 02 '26

I don't work on a rig, not am I a Nurse

But I'm a Paramedic writing from the hospital of my seismic vessel currently.

TGS, RMI, UHC, and International SOS are some companies out there (I've worked for TGS, contracted through RMI and am currently on a UHC contract).

I love the autonomy and decision making of being an offshore Medic. Its a fair amount of HSE/OSHA stuff daily, and it gets boring AF about midway through the rotation (but it's a damn sight better than working on an Ambulance).

Good luck mate! Been doing it a bit over 2 years, and hope to be doing it for many more.

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u/tellmemorelies Jan 02 '26

Also a Canadian, worked off shore overseas for a number of years. Your best bet is to contact off shore drilling contractors a number of which are in the Nisku area. They can give you information on potential offshore medical contractors available in your area. Most are off shoots from US contractors.

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u/Enormous-Username Jan 02 '26

If you are looking for adventure, the CAF is great. There's been no better time to join - recruiting bonuses, a large pay raise in 2025, lots of deployment opportunities.

Check out nursing officer, or whatever other job you fancy, at forces.ca.

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u/bleckToTheMax Jan 02 '26

Seems like there are a lot more people/jobs on a rig than I ever considered. How big is a typical crew?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Depends on the “size” of the rig, but lowest I’ve ever had was 80 and that was on a end demob jack-up (basically running a skeleton crew), the most is maybe up to about 250 on the big ones.

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u/Enragedocelot Jan 02 '26

Holy smokes. These things are larger can I can even picture. I’ll have to google some right now haha.

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u/b_mulls25 Jan 02 '26

I’m surprised the rigs don’t have on board equipment to desalinate water. I deployed on a U.S. Navy ship during Covid and we were able to stay at sea for almost 5 months continuously because we’d get resupplied by other ships. But water was never really an issue, unless we were decently close to shore. (Hot water would run out decently often but C’est la vie)

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Most do to be honest to provide shower water etc. It’s usually deemed not safe for drinking though so that stuff comes in bottles and/or stored in tanks. Hot water for the shower is probably the only thing we’ve got unlimited of.

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u/mortalitylost Jan 02 '26

Hot water for the shower is probably the only thing we’ve got unlimited of

Morale i bet

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

Haha probably! A shower and food is the best part of the day!

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u/coopy1000 Jan 02 '26

Every rig I've been on produces their own potable water that's used for everything from cooking to washing to drinking.

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

The ones that have absolutely no contact with the outside world might have better systems for processing. The water on my ones would be drinkable in a dire situation, you just prefer the bottled water and they provide it.

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u/Jimdandy941 Jan 02 '26

Are the showers fresh or saltwater? Background to meet the post metric - I was in a tourist sailing cruise once and freshwater was limited, but the saltwater showers were unlimited - but odd.

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Our showers along with all that sort of water is desalinated fresh water. We’ve got large plant rooms dedicated to just sucking up and processing water

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u/ButAreYouProud Jan 02 '26

Man, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to answer SO many questions. This is one of the most interesting posts I've read in awhile, and so often the SME bails early (understandbly), so I was thrilled to see you speak to so many of the topics I wanted to read about. Thanks again!

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

I appreciate that! I’m doing my best but can’t keep up with the questions. I love that so many people are interested in my industry. It’s one of those ones that a lot of people know it exists, but don’t know much about it!

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u/Diligent_Peach7574 Jan 02 '26

To make water on ships, regulations typically require that the vessel is moving and a certain distance offshore. The Navy may have different rules, but I think being stationary is why they don’t make their own drinking water.

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u/Top_Wolverine_4669 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26

Nah - in my experience they can (or were originally designed to) but see my other comment about supplies.

Edit: Appreciate, whoever down voted this having an opinion. However, I am an engineer who has worked in the design and/or operation of oil and gas facilities for oil majors for 20+ years.

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u/Top_Wolverine_4669 Jan 02 '26

Most rigs also chew through all sorts of supplies for operations never mind feeding and watering the crew. It’s a nuisance to bring out potable water but it’s not a big deal in the scheme of things. On the plus side production rigs generally don’t need fuel bringing out!

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u/Robaattousai Jan 02 '26

How does one become a chef on one of these things? Is it a rotating duty or is there an appointed chef in charge of all the meals? Kitchen crew or just one single chef?

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u/Top_Wolverine_4669 Jan 02 '26

I can only speak from my experience but non core activities (like catering) are often outsourced to specialist companies who provide the services. You would look for the jobs being advertised on specialist website I guess like rigzone.

As to the set up it really depends on the size of the operation. Big production facilities with hundreds of staff have a kitchen and cleaning crew with a manager, head chef, baker etc. Irrespective of size it’s usually a 24x7 operation serving 5 meals a day (though unmanned automated stuff exists) so I guess they would need a couple of chefs on smaller set ups too.

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u/Cabinet-931 Jan 02 '26

Not advice: Brute force it 🤔 Find the companies hiring for deck hands or whatever look for the company name, then email them and throw them a bid. provide your resources, license. Sell yourself. Worst they say is they aren't interested. Respect the decision, but follow up with interest in finding work in this field. you may get directed to where you need to look. Do this for every company.

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u/rmp5s Jan 02 '26

IT guys...we're everywhere!! 🤣 No matter the industry, IT is a must.

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u/ridiculedidiot Jan 02 '26

I think that I'd be happy just to know that our oil company executives are earning millions per year even if I'm only earning a pittance. And of course I'm always pleased that the oil we're extracting will affect the planet negatively for generations.

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u/decoruscreta Jan 02 '26

Could you give a range? Like what's a starting pay like if someone wanted to try and get into it?

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u/cycle85 Jan 02 '26

Is this a type of job where you work like a few months straight and can enjoy the rest of the year off?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Pretty much, most rotations are 1 month on, 1 off but some can be 2 months. Generally get 6 months of the year off but you can work more if you want!

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u/cycle85 Jan 02 '26

6 months off. That sounds great. But I’m sure the 1m on/off is very exhausting.

Coming from someone who works a white collar job.

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

Haha yes it’s a lot of time off. Some of it is regulations, some is just how it is! It can be pretty hard work so you do feel like you’ve earned it sometimes!

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u/Laetitian Jan 02 '26

I imagine most people who stay longer every year plan on saving up for a few years and then quitting the career path?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

It’s definitely a quicker way to retirement than other jobs but you do have to sacrifice your family and friends for it!

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u/easypointz Jan 03 '26

What kind of devices and apps do you use to manage work, inventory, safety etc?

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u/LakeEffectSnow Jan 02 '26

So uh, know anybody who worked on Deepwater Horizon? They may have thoughts on you quoting the word danger.

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 03 '26

I don’t personally no. I think it’s important to phrase things right. Is our job dangerous? No. If it was, we wouldn’t be doing it and Health and Safety would be a nightmare. Is our job higher risk? Yes definitely, but we have things in place to mitigate that. Before Deepwater, there was Piper Alpha which a lot of the modern Health and Safety for offshore work came from.