Oil Drilling Job Potential
Exploratory drilling underway in hundreds of new prospects the world over will determine how much more oil and gas may lie in what are true frontier areas today.
In Focus: High-Tech Deep Sea Exploration
That is a major reason why the offshore drilling industry is so exciting to many people. It is very much a new frontier, with the advent of deepwater drilling only about 16 years old, and so many areas of the world left to explore. Additionally, it seems likely that with demand for oil so high – coupled with tensions between the U.S. and the Middle East and Venezuela – that the United States will allow for more offshore drilling. (we’ll see) Alaska drilling is likely to expand too.
Offshore hotspots: West Africa, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, North Sea
A recent report from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement forecast that deepwater drilling would sustain between 80,000 to 100,000 jobs this decade. Of these, between 50,000 to 70,000 jobs will proceed “well into the next decade as exploration and development proceed,” BOEMRE predicts.
Check out this article that appeared in CNNMoney Magazine about the shortage of offshore oil rig workers – both blue and white collar.