SEAFARERS, SEAMEN AND OFFSHORE JOBS

• CREW

A crew is a group of people who work together at a common activity, usually used to describe people working on a ship, aircraft etc. in a structured and hierarchical organization.

A ship’s crew are the people required on a ship to see to tasks that keeps the ship running efficiently. A ship’s crew consists of different professions and ranks; they perform different roles and each role has a unique responsibility and are all important for the efficient functioning of a ship.

A ship has four main categories:

deck department

Engineering department

Stewards department and others.

Some positions on a ship’s crew are:

Captain

Deck officer

Deck rating

Engineers

Stewards.

• SEAFARER

The term seafarer basically refers to a sailor or crew member on board any vessel that sails over water. When a person begins to serve on board a marine vessel as a profession, they are referred to as a seafarer; there are many different classifications, levels and ranks in the profession but the term seafarer is not used to qualify a person after leaving the profession unless they have achieved a high rank while on service. Seamen that have served on board marine vessels for an extended period are therefore referred to as seafarers.

Seafarers are people who are employed by ship-owners to do work on board a ship at sea, taking part in the ship’s operation, maintenance and repair work, special ship personnel who have hired to work at sea on board a ship, cleaning and catering personnel. This does not include people on ships with land base employments, i.e. journalists, researchers, cooperating task men, service technicians, journalists, offshore specialist etc. people not covered by the description above are not considered as seafarers, if they are not required to have an employment contract for seafarers to be on a ship then they are not seafarers but passengers.

• OFFSHORE RIG

An off shore rig or offshore oil platform is a massive structure constructed on water bodies (river, sea, ocean, lakes) with facilities for exploration, extraction, storage and processing of petroleum and natural gas products that lie under the seabed. Most offshore rigs activities are done on continental shelves but can also be used on rivers, lakes and inland seas; the rig could be fixed to the ocean floor, floating or on an artificial island. 

A lot of the world’s oil reserves lie under the sea and through technological advancements like advanced drilling techniques the hydrocarbon industry  have been able to find and produce oil and gas successfully, execute projects quickly and control environmental impacts.

Offshore and onshore rigs are similar in the techniques and equipment used; they are different in the arrangement of the drilling rig and equipment and some methods of operation, and offshore rigs cost higher to operate because some operations have to adapt to the requirements dictated by extreme environmental conditions.

 Off shore rigs have to create the same working conditions as onshore rigs so they can move from one point to the other and other features to help adaptation to the marine environment like:

Heliport

Living quarters

Cranes

Risers etc.

Off shore rigs can be divided into two main categories depending on water depth

Bottom supported drilling rigs and floating drilling rigs.

• CREWING

This is crew management for ships, they are services rendered by shipping companies who specialize in providing and changing crews for vessels. Crewing is an important aspect of maritime and ship management, it includes management of all the activities handled by the crew on board vessels as well as related shore based activities.

Companies that offer Crewing services are known as crew management companies or Crewing managers, they perform their services as commissioned by the ship owners, managers, operators, charterers under an agreed contract.

Crew Management companies take care of the human resources and manning of ships using a network of recruitment agencies based in seafarer sourcing locations. Their services include crew recruitment, deployment, scheduling, training and development. They also take care of ongoing management and administrative duties of the crew such as payroll, insurance, health schemes, travel arrangements etc. Crewing companies also have specialized crewing software, usually custom built to manage activities and Crewing related data like crew scheduling, industry certification and documentation, crew logistics, crew training and upgrading schedules, performance assessments, statistical analysis, feedback, invoicing etc.

• Oil Rig Job

Oil rig jobs are jobs performed on an offshore oil rig, oil rig workers support oil and gas drilling and extraction operations on an offshore oil platform, they might have a specific job on the rig or focus on general labor tasks. Jobs like derrick man and driller require the person to work directly with drilling equipment and oil extraction. Other tasks include catering, cleaning providing medical services etc.

Oil rig jobs include:

Drilling Operations

Roughneck

Directional Drilling

Floor hand

Derrick man

• Chief Officer

The chief officer also known as the chief mate, deck mate, first mate or first officer heads the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief office is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship’s cargo and deck crew.

The chief officer reports directly to the ship captain and second in command, he is in charge of

• Performing vessel navigation watch duties
• Cargo operation (loading, unloading, cargo planning)
• Maintenance of cargo and cargo gears on board ship
• Accountability of the stability of the ship
• Maintenance of ship hull and accommodation
• Work schedule and distribution
• Crew coordination and conflict resolution
• Garbage management
• Ballast and de-ballasting operation done on board.
• Paper work on behalf of shore management

Acts as SSO- ship etc.