Working offshore, hard but good salary

Working offshore, hard but good salary

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Working on offshore oil fields might not be everyone's idea of
fun. They have to stay on an elevated oil platform for weeks to
extract oil and gas far away from home in the middle of the sea.

But, thousands of people in the country's oil and gas industry
are happy to do so.

Money is their primary motive.

"I'll work here for about 10 years to earn a lot of money.
Afterwards, I want to work normally on land," an oil worker, who
requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post, during a recent visit
to a foreign-owned offshore oil facility in the Java Sea.

The worker said that a fresh high school graduate working on
an offshore field is paid about Rp 3 million (US$337) a month.

A high-school graduate, who has been working for ten years,
can earn between Rp 7.5 million and Rp 11 million a month.

A local university graduate can earn between Rp 5 million and
Rp 8.5 million a month to begin with, and after working for ten
years their monthly salary rises to between Rp 19 million and Rp
22.5 million, he added.

This is quite a lot compared to the starting monthly salary of
Rp 1.5 million paid by other industries to fresh IT graduates --
who are among the highest paid nowadays.

While local people working offshore earn more than enough, the
salary given to foreigners is much higher. A platform supervisor,
who has worked for years and is responsible for the operation of
the platform, earns $750 per day or $22,500 a month, according to
the oil worker.

An American oil worker, who has been working for almost 35
years, also admitted that money was his prime motive.

"My salary can support my family in the U.S. But, I also like
the job," he said.

He said when he got a month off, he always returned to his
country to see his family.

Offshore oil workers have several kinds of working time: some
work for two weeks and get one week off, some work for one week
and get one week off, and others work one month and get one month
off. But they all work 12 hours a day.

They are all front men in the country's oil and gas industry,
which is now the major financial contributor to the government's
budget.

Their salaries are paid by the government under the cost of
recovery scheme. State oil and gas firm Pertamina is assigned by
the government to supervise the country's oil and gas contractors
in making their expenditure, including salary expenses for the
workers. All the expenditures must be approved by Pertamina.

Some people have criticized Pertamina for allowing oil and gas
contractors to pay high salaries for their workers -- which, they
say, has resulted in a decrease in the government's net income
from the sector. Last year, the government earned about Rp 75
trillion from the oil and gas sector.

Among them is legislator Yosep Umarhadi of the Indonesian
Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) faction, who insists that
the salary received by foreign workers is too high and should be
cut.

He said foreign workers account for five percent of total
workers in the country's oil and gas industry but their salaries
account for more than 50 percent of the total wages paid in the
industry.

According to Pertamina, there are 22,956 workers in the
country's oil and gas industry, 943 of whom are foreigners.

A local worker admitted to The Post he was jealous of the
higher salary given to his foreign colleagues.

Above all, he disliked the fact that his foreign colleagues
were reluctant to share their knowledge with locals.

Life is relatively peaceful offshore. Anyone involved in a
physical fight is immediately dismissed.

But, to some people, life offshore can also be stressful. A
worker recalled that he once witnessed a fellow worker yelling
and crying like a crazy man because of a family problem.

"Some have even tried to commit suicide," he said, but he had
never heard about sexual abuse at his working place.

Herry said he often missed his family when working.

"It is quite hard for me and everybody else here. But we also
know that we'll meet them during our week off," he said.