Hi. I am a fresh graduate of ME from local university.
I started my job this week in a small oil and gas company where the company is vendor for contractors.

My position is in gas and flame safety mainly in onshore (Pengerang). I will be paid around 2.5 to 2.7k before probation and may be increased to 3k if my performance throughout the probation is good. My question is,

1- How is the demand for this expertise (gas and flame) for a long run?

2- How often do engineers visit the onshore site?

3- Is it possible to jump through bigger company? With this gas and flame expertise? Or is there any chance to jump to another more demand expertise

4- Any general advice for a newbie, maybe to impress or help my manager?

Thank you, from the newbie engineer.

With covid...and oil price fluctuation no one really knows. I know 3 guys got laid off and contract not extended.

My advice is to build network and meet people and try to move up with contact. Aftet all that's what matters

just started working already asking when you can jump and so on. Don't think this is the right attitude if you ask me

TBH, the salary is very low, try to search for openings at operators such as Petronas, Exxon or service providers such as SLB, Weatherford ETC if you are serious of being in the OnG industry. Even local companies like Sapura also pay higher than this. A lot of companies use the OnG title but give low salary IRL to bait people join their company.

You do have a point. But i think it’s good to think about my future from the early of my career.

I do think so. But this is the best offer that I got. Plus is near to my house. So it is possible to jump to the big companies you mentioned after a few years right?

O&G should still be in demand for around 30 years. All these renewable/green energy is just talk.

I thought offshore can be paid until 5k? Maybe increment high.

If no other job offer at hand can consider this. Not the best but not the worst either.

Gas and flame is very generic. What do you do actually?

Are you in design team doing FEED? Are you doing commissioning? Are you doing field services?

Site days are based on the type of work that you need to do. It can range from 2 days to 2 years.

I am from vendor site too doing services. My site days ranges from 2 weeks to 2 months typically.

Gas and flame for safety. We are dealing with the installation of fire safety system and gas detection system. Commissioning, field services. No design work.

I accepted it. Just to make sure the future of this niche

Ok. But i thought you are from ME (mechanical engineerinh) but you are doing instrument/control system work?

Then you should be dealing with safety control system as well, the likes of Hima, trisystem, etc.

Then your duration should be similar around 2 weeks to few months for one plant.

Safety is quite a niche area but doing that alone is not enough. You will forever stuck and earn low wages. You either need to upgrade yourself by taking tuv cert (FS, etc) then join consultant or pray hard and jump to client side.

And yes, i have a lot of friends from trisystem joining client side.

Thank you bro. This is exactly the answer that i am searching. In short, learn as much as I can, and make jump ship to client side as my goals haha.

Thank you for the response.

Yesterday i browsed linkedin and saw opening for solar turbine and they encourage freshie to apply.

if you are from mech background and love to go to site, you might want to try this.

Hi Mr Viole,

I already accepted the job. I've been with this company for 8 months already and recently confirmed my position.

My current scope is to perform PM and Reactive Maintenance in Pengerang. We don't really deal with system, as our job is to ensure that our devices are healthy and functioning. Systems are mostly handled by Yokogawa. However, I still learn can a bit on the DCS system for the plant. This is my first job so I'd say that I enjoy learning things here.

This is the same company as before?

Congrats and good luck in your journey. Maybe we can meet if i go down to pengerang.

Yes, it is the same company.

Thank you Mr Viole 🫡

1) as long as Oil and Gas persist, then your demand is there. onshore sector is typically more safe and steady in the oil and gas industry. so generally this should apply to your expertise as it rely to the onshore sector.

2) no solid answer. depends on your job scope and your company. A site engineer may visit onshore site everyday but a design engineer may not even required to visit site once a year.

3) personally i think client --> contractors --> vendor. Since you are still fresh grad, you may try to start your career with contractors and client, which i believe the package is better and you will learn more as engineer. from there, you have bigger chance to jump to another sector next time as your engineering experiences will be wider.

4) work hard