If you are a young person trying to work out which career is for you or are someone who wants to earn more working in the gas industry is a very good option. The vast majority of the jobs available offer very good rates of pay, good job security and many of the skills learnt are transferable and sought after by other industries.
Here we provide a brief overview of the industry and the type of jobs you can secure within the industry. There are five main sectors, below is an overview of each.
Exploration
The vast majority of gas exploration jobs take you away from home, so you need to be able to cope with this. You may well find yourself working at sea or in isolated locations. However, recently more gas exploration takes place on land and it is happening across the world so it is possible to work locally as well as further afield. Many of the backroom roles, e.g. data analysis, are not based in the field.
The vast majority of the roles are skilled, but these can be learnt on the job if you take an apprenticeship. There are numerous support roles, e.g. security and catering, which require no qualifications. Therefore, anyone can potentially enter this sector.
Production (Extraction)
What we have said about gas exploration jobs pretty much applies to production jobs. Once again, you need to be prepared to work in isolated locations.
Processing
Once extracted, gas needs to be processed. The majority of these jobs are on land. Again, there is a range of jobs available. The ratio of unskilled to skilled jobs is higher in this sector than it is in other gas industry sectors.
Transportation
Once processed gas needs to be transported to the customer. Some of that takes place via pipelines, so there are roles in building and maintaining those pipelines.
It is also transported via ships and lorries, so there are jobs available here too. If you want to work as a driver, you need the usual driving qualifications, but will need to complete other courses to ensure that you know what to do in an emergency.
Domestic and Commercial Services
It surprises many to know that the majority of gas industry jobs are at the end of the line looking after the domestic and commercial customers who use gas. The majority of the jobs in this sector involve the maintenance of the network that delivers the gas to the home or commercial premises.
This is the easiest part of the industry to enter. There are numerous apprenticeships available, and plenty of opportunities for those with the right qualifications to start a well paid job right away.
Gas engineer jobs are well paid pretty much across the board. If you compare rates of pay with other industries, they are almost always higher, so a career in the gas industry is a great way of securing a good income for yourself and your family.
