Bear’s Book Blog

Offshore Oil Rig Jobs

I worked offshore shortly after I came out of high school. For some bizarre reason, and bad advice to which I listened, I blew off all my scholarships and decided to hit the road. I would like to be able to type, “Whatever. I am over it,” but it would be a lie.

I worked my way across the country, sleeping on concrete picnic tables in order to save money. One of my jobs was working at an Autozone in Garden Grove, California. Some months later I wound up in Cutoff, Louisiana working for South Lafourche Labor Crews, a company that supplied roustabouts to oil companies. That job sucked outrageously mainly because Mitch was not a good employer and so I moved on, and back to college (on my dime.) I later heard Mitch’s company had been raided for all kinds of illegal activities sending him to prison, so my sense of time to go turned out to be very accurate.

After 14 years of marriage, a semi-successful insurance career and a blazingly successful Internet Service Provider start up which was robbed by my partners and subsequently was a major cause of divorce, I began looking at going back offshore. This was in 1998.

Pondering over how long it took to get my job, I honestly don’t have a sense of how many months it took me to land the job but I do remember that it was not a short process. Once I landed the job, I found myself living in a bunkhouse going through classes and training and depressed as hell because, boy, how the mighty had fallen. My business was gone and here I was, working for an hourly wage again. Thank goodness they started training us on how to exit a helicopter that had made a water landing and had turned upside down in the water. Nothing and I mean nothing will get your mind off feeling sorry for yourself better than keeping your focus on how to get out of a seat you are held in by a seatbelt while you are submerged and upside down.

Once I got into the routine of working offshore I realized a couple of things. First, as long as I was on the job and on the clock, the clock was working in my favor. If I were home watching television the clock was working against me. It was an epiphany that took me reaching my late 30s, going through a robbery and a divorce to understand. Second, coming home after a month long stint to a fat bank account made me want to hold to the rod longer even when I was offshore. I got to where I was uncomfortable if I was not on the ship, barge, or platform working. Besides, it is agreeable work. Some of us started at 6AM and worked until 6PM, some from 6PM until 6AM. Some of use from 5 to 5, same deal.

For the single guy, it was a dream job. I once stayed nearly 90 days straight. That homecoming only made it worse for my hankering to be back on the ship because I could see myself getting ahead. Others worked the traditional two weeks on and two weeks off. Many had saved their money and used the oil field job to pay their bills and ran things like a contracting or backhoe business to pay for toys and fund their retirement on their off weeks. I am sure you understand when I say it took me a little while before thinking of being in business for myself again. I worked in the oil fields and I recovered from the robbery and the divorce, one day at a time.

I wish I had had these people’s help when I started looking. I can guarantee that should I ever look to returning to the oil fields and its honest, well paying work, these people will lead the way.

If you think working in the oil fields might be for you, and I highly recommend it as a place to work, try these folks on for size.

Best Regards,

Tim Singleton