Finding, drilling, refining, and moving oil and natural gas, which still supply most U.S. energy, from geologists to the hands on the rig floor.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Petroleum Engineer: Figures out how to get oil and natural gas out of the ground safely and profitably. Typical pay $141k.
Reservoir Engineer: Builds computer models of underground oil and gas fields to predict how much can be recovered. Typical pay $145k.
Petroleum Geologist: Reads rocks, seismic images, and well data to find where oil and gas are trapped. Typical pay $120k.
Seismic Geophysicist: Uses sound waves sent into the ground to make pictures of rock layers miles below the surface. Typical pay $125k.
Drilling Supervisor (Company Man): The oil company's boss on the rig, making the decisions to keep a well on track, on budget, and safe. Typical pay $140k.
Directional Driller: Steers a drill bit underground, curving it sideways for miles to hit a target the size of a room. Typical pay $120k.
Process Safety Engineer: Prevents explosions, fires, and toxic leaks at refineries and chemical plants. Typical pay $115k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Pipeline Controller: Runs hundreds of miles of oil or gas pipeline from a control room, opening valves and starting pumps remotely. Typical pay $92k.
Refinery Operator: Runs the towers, furnaces, and pipes that turn crude oil into gasoline, jet fuel, and plastics. Typical pay $90k.
Landman: Researches who owns underground mineral rights and negotiates leases so companies can drill. Typical pay $95k.
Pipeline Welder: Welds together miles of steel pipe for oil and gas pipelines, often traveling job to job. Typical pay $91k.
Pipeline Inspector: Checks pipelines for corrosion, leaks, and bad welds during construction and operation. Typical pay $80k.
Rig Driller: Operates the drilling rig, controlling the drill pipe's speed, weight, and pumps from the driller's cabin. Typical pay $65k.
Derrickhand: Works high on the rig's mast handling pipe and keeps the drilling mud system running. Typical pay $58k.
Lease Operator (Pumper): Drives a route of oil and gas wells every day, checking pumps, tanks, and equipment. Typical pay $60k.
Gas Utility Service Technician: Responds to gas leak calls, turns gas on and off, and fixes gas meters and lines for homes and businesses. Typical pay $68k.
Gas Processing Plant Operator: Runs the plants that clean raw natural gas and separate out propane, butane and other liquids before it goes into pipelines. Typical pay $85k.
Gas Compressor Station Operator: Keeps the giant engines that push natural gas through pipelines across the country running, often at remote stations. Typical pay $78k.
LNG Terminal Operator: Runs the huge plants on the Gulf Coast that chill natural gas to minus 260°F so it can be shipped overseas on tankers. Typical pay $95k.
Pipeline Pigging Technician: Sends bullet-shaped devices called 'pigs' through oil and gas pipelines to scrape out wax and water or scan the steel for cracks, then catches them miles away. Typical pay $65k.
Gas Measurement Technician: Calibrates the meters and flow computers that measure every cubic foot of natural gas sold through pipelines, since tiny errors cost millions. Typical pay $72k.
Flowback 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. Typical pay $62k.
Well Service Rig Operator: Runs a workover rig that pulls pipe and pumps out of existing oil and gas wells to repair, clean or plug them. Typical pay $58k.
Starter: fastest way in
Roustabout / Floorhand: Does the heavy, hands-on work at drilling sites and oil fields: hauling pipe, cleaning, and maintaining equipment. Typical pay $49k.
Mudlogger: Examines rock chips that come up with drilling mud to tell the team what layer the drill is in. Typical pay $54k.
Fuel Terminal Operator: Loads gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from big storage tanks into tanker trucks, rail cars and barges. Typical pay $52k.
Orphan Well Plugging Hand: Works on crews that seal abandoned oil and gas wells with cement so they stop leaking methane and salty water, often paid for by federal cleanup money. Typical pay $52k.
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.