Roustabouts, Oil and Gas
Assemble or repair oil field equipment using hand and power tools. Perform other tasks as needed.
Most important skills
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Operations Monitoring
- Operation and Control
- Quality Control Analysis
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Active Listening
- Social Perceptiveness
Key knowledge
- Mechanical
- Customer and Personal Service
- Production and Processing
- Transportation
- Mathematics
- English Language
- Physics
- Education and Training
What the work involves
- Unscrew or tighten pipes, casing, tubing, and pump rods, using hand and power wrenches and tongs.
- Bolt together pump and engine parts.
- Move pipes to and from trucks, using truck winches and motorized lifts, or by hand.
- Dismantle and repair oil field machinery, boilers, and steam engine parts, using hand tools and power tools.
- Guide cranes to move loads about decks.
- Walk flow lines to locate leaks, using electronic detectors and by making visual inspections, and repair the leaks.
- Lay gas and oil pipelines.
- Clean trucks used in the fields.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Less than a High School Diploma (64.1% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (21.5%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 1 month, up to and including 3 months (23.9%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Roustabouts, Oil and Gas is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 67% of occupations compared | 84% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Low | Lower on dealing with the public than 71% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “Not important at all” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 64% of occupations compared | — |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 68% of occupations compared | — |
| Time pressure | Very high | Higher on time pressure than 81% of occupations compared | 55% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Low | Lower on conflict situations than 79% of occupations compared | 51% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 59% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Consequence of error | High | Higher on consequence of error than 75% of occupations compared | — |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very high
- Conflict situations: low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: high
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 13.24%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 2.74%
- Constant contact with others: 84.01%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 34.38%
- Fairly important: 13.8%
- Important: 16.3%
- Very important: 2.22%
- Extremely important: 33.29%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0.28%
- Important: 14.04%
- Very important: 27.28%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 9.59%
- Limited freedom: 15.47%
- Some freedom: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- A lot of freedom: 28.44%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 13.52%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 0%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 31.77%
- Every day: 54.71%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Conflict situations
- Never: 15.99%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 51.28%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 9.59%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 22.59%
- Every day: 0.56%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a year or more but not every month: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a month or more but not every week: 13.24%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 36.11%
- Every day: 0%
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 6.8%
- Fairly serious: 14.04%
- Serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Very serious: 2.54%
- Extremely serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 17, Incumbent 08/2023
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O*NET-SOC 47-5071.00 · SOC 47-5071 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8