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Salaries in the oil and gas industries

Salaries in the oil and gas industries are usually very high. The engineers working in the industry too, are compensated well, but there's still a yawning gap between corporate salaries and those of the engineers.

Of course, a chemical engineer's salary would go up more than double in a time period of a decade or so of having started work. So he earns a very high salary by the time he is about 45-50 years old.

What is paradoxical here is that engineers with a bachelor's degree are given the highest salaries, then come those that hold doctorate degrees and only then those who hold master's degrees in engineering. This trend may occur because a bachelor is younger when he first joins work. Also, the normal trend is that he will not be interested to go into academia, research and education, once he starts working. So he demands a much higher wage than employees in the other two categories. So, there is this discrepancy in salaries in the oil and gas industries.

The salary the engineer gets also depends on which part of the world he comes from. Salaries for engineers are very high in the UK, especially London. South East and other Southern areas of UK too pay good remuneration to their employees. The Northern part of the UK pays reasonably well too, but it is far better than the pay in Scotland. Those employees working in the Midlands are paid very low salaries in oil and gas companies there, as compared to their other counterparts.

• OIL RIGGING

Off –shore oil rigging jobs give a very high pay-scale to their employees. Though this is real hard work, the compensation provided more than makes up for it. Then there are the perks that come with it too – great accommodation, food, laundry and other personal expenses are duly paid for.

Not only this, the employee gets the unique advantage of working for 2 weeks and gets a 3-week holiday after that! So that means that he ends up working less than half the month.

Once the employee shows his efficiency and is appreciated, he can be easily taken on to a higher post, that of a Driller. That will fetch him still higher pay.

• RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Being employed in a gas and oil industry can be challenging, though fun. Geologists who are involved in research and who want to succeed in the industry must also have to have a taste for adventure and must be adept in business and management skills too.

Earning high salaries in the oil and gas industries is a challenging task – the industry is very market-driven. If the geologist cannot find ways and means to develop new oil resources, the company starts losing money on him. So he has to see to it that he delivers results each time. This can sometimes get stressful for him, but this uncertainty is also part of his job. And then, nothing matches the thrill of researching the area and actually finding a new resource of oil.

Though the system is unstable, the salaries in oil and gas industries are well worth the trouble. The returns are equally high for those who persist in this field.