Also called: Flowback Hand, Well Testing Operator
Right after a well is fracked, watches the gauges and valves for 12 hours at a time as sand, water and the first oil rush back up, keeping the pressure safe.
On a pad in West Texas, you sit at the flowback unit watching pressure gauges as frac water and sand roar out of a new well. You adjust chokes to slow the flow and check separators for problems. Every hour you log readings, then hand off to the night crew.
Long shifts and overtime; pay rises and falls with drilling activity.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. High school diploma; crews train new hands on the job.
Ways in: On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Petroleum Technology, Process Technology.
Growing slowly. Tied to drilling; oilfield jobs swing with oil prices.
Medium risk for 10 years. Remote monitoring is spreading, but staffing a live well during flowback still needs people on site.
Age 18+. One way to start: Apply to flowback and well testing companies in an oil region First: SafeLand or RigPass safety orientation (one day), H2S awareness and a drug test
Classes: Physics, Shop CTE, Earth science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 47-5013.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.