Just a young man trying to find his way! HELP NEEDED!

[neilk281088]

Hi everyone ive been trawling google and sparks forums for hours and found this about the most useful. The situation is im a time served electrician JIB card in hand from a large electrical contractors in the north west, having just come out of time i have not had my contract renewed due to the lack of contracts coming in, so rather than fall back into the industrial contract sector i would like to broaden my horizons and get on the rigs. From what i have read i realise you need your sea survival (COMPEX)? and possibly rope access course whgich is no problem.Also High voltage? as you can probably tell i only know whats on the internet and I would like an experienced point of view on what the ideal route for me to take from here. any response would be very much appreciated, regards Neil kitson

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Not my field mate, but i would be contacting offshore companies and explaining what you wish to achieve. Send them a CV and covering letter, you never know you may just get lucky. I would imagine a job like that needs no end of special training that they will no doubt provide.

 

[neilk281088]

no one else got any good advice then?

 

[ringer]

Looks like we're all landlubbers here matey.
Don't think we have anyone from the rigs on here, unless they are lurking. I imagine it is pretty specialist stuff they do, and so not much in common to compare notes etc.
I would not normally advocate reposting the same question on the forum, but if you were to post a new thread entitled something like 'Working on the rigs' it may just get the attention of a someone who can help.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Sunday Times Magazine a couple of months ago, the North Sea Oil industry is on it's knees. It's not the gravy train it once was so I would stick with industrial/commercial via agency if needs be, especially if you have no experience and need to invest in courses and try to convince potential employers about taking you on, versus the experienced reduntees out there.

 

[Richard Burns]

Sunday Times Magazine a couple of months ago, the North Sea Oil industry is on it's knees. It's not the gravy train it once was so I would stick with industrial/commercial via agency if needs be, especially if you have no experience and need to invest in courses and try to convince potential employers about taking you on, versus the experienced reduntees out there.

I hope he has manged to get a job of some sort in the last six years!

 

[Sean Mayes]

Hi everyone ive been trawling google and sparks forums for hours and found this about the most useful. The situation is im a time served electrician JIB card in hand from a large electrical contractors in the north west, having just come out of time i have not had my contract renewed due to the lack of contracts coming in, so rather than fall back into the industrial contract sector i would like to broaden my horizons and get on the rigs. From what i have read i realise you need your sea survival (COMPEX)? and possibly rope access course whgich is no problem.Also High voltage? as you can probably tell i only know whats on the internet and I would like an experienced point of view on what the ideal route for me to take from here. any response would be very much appreciated, regards Neil kitson

You may get on the rigs to do LV works, maybe? but HV is a different ball game, no way an inexperienced sparky will be allow to operate HV on an Oil rig or even get trained on one. Best bet would be to contact your local DNO, Distribution Network Operator, they may need higher qualifications, some might take you on and train you or you may have to attend college uni to gain them, even then it will be hard to get in the door, HV is quite a closed nit community which requires certain attributes to your character, the dangers are greater and the mind set has to be focussed. Hope this helps, not much I know, but this is the truth about the direction you are thinking about getting into.

 

[Hobsoni]

In order for you to work offshore on a rig, you will need to complete both the MIST and BOSIET courses, irrespective of whether you are a chef or an electrician. The MIST course is a one off and the BOSIET is a 5 year renewal course. You would also need a UKOOA medical for most offshore installations.

COMPEX is obviously desirable because of the nature of the installations and the process.

If I were you, I would look to get your COMPEX first and at least try and seek experience on UK based installations. Also, do not rule out ONSHORE Oil and Gas installations where you will not need MIST or BOSIET courses.

I invested circa £2000 on both the MIST and BOSIET courses 6 years ago and never got a job offshore. I spent the past 5 years in Iraq and Africa onshore working on Oil and Gas respectively. I added my COMPEX a couple of years ago when the works changed from early works (accommodation, infrastructure etc) to Plant (LNG Process etc).

In my limited experience, working onshore overseas, an expat will typically hold a supervisory / managerial / inspector / commissioning role as third country national electricians (Indian, Nepalese etc) are much cheaper than yourself.

At the moment, there are very few jobs as the price of oil and gas has dropped significantly over the past 18 months. Don't be put off however, because a lot of experienced workers will have retired and when the prices improve, there will be a demand for workers and there will be a void left by all those who took retirement.

Short version:- get your COMPEX and get into sites in UK soonest and maybe look to overseas onshore. PS:- the money overseas onshore is just as good as offshore......varies from 5k per month to 25k per month!! Don't sell yourself short!

Good luck!!

 

[Darkwood]

As has already been posted, this thread is 6years old and the OP has not been on the forum for over 4yrs now, appreciate all your responses but I'll close the thread as it's very unlikely to see any kind of response from the OP.
Anyone interested in starting a new thread discussing similar content then please do, been 6yrs old the advice does change over the years as the working climate and regulations change and can lead to mixed advice within the same thread.