There are many rigs (especially in So. China sea, but also offshore India and a few other places) where a rig hand earns the equivalent of a few hundred bucks a month. Not everyone on offshore platforms make big bucks.
You point is well taken when it comes to most "western" rigs operating in the GoM, north sea, Australia, etc. where it is true that even rig hands make good money, mostly because they work 12-hr shifts when they are on the platform and get overtime, offshore/hazard pay, etc.
And I'm not refuting your main point, simply adding info... and in the context of current dayrates for rigs, even the ones with ultra cheap labor, the labor expense -- while significant in some cases -- does not really affect the cost of produced oil as much as capex spending for rigs and equipment on them.
How do I know? Spent time on some rigs offshore in So. China sea in the early and mid '90s where some rig hands only got about $100/mo. doing the same work as any rig hand around the world.
Also as time goes on, more and more rig activities are being automated, reducing the number of people required on a rig, but at the expense of having to pay more for guys who sit in control booths manipulating joy sticks and pushing buttons... although there will always be a need for someone to grab a grease gun and physically grease the equipment -- can't automate that and can't always use grease-less bearings and other parts... for example, a raised backup system/tool VRC used to build had 48 grease points that required greasing every day... now that same tool only has 4 grease point as they redesigned it using as many greaseless bearing and other parts as they could... took a couple of hours (which is a lot of money with current dayrates) to grease an RBS 15 years ago... only takes a few minutes now.
Some rigs require more or less people to operate based on design, type of drilling, etc. and the cost to produce a bbl of oil can vary wildly depending on where one is, the climate there, what kind of equipment is on the rig and what type of oil they are producing.
Jim |
