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Depending on the company, field production operators may be responsible for the field production of oil wells, gas wells, or both.

Some of their duties include:

• Monitoring production and running diagnostics on well performance.
• Maintaining flow lines.
• Scheduling and supervising.
• Monitoring down hole pump efficiency and reporting problems.
• Identifying broken equipment and reporting which replacement parts are needed.

Senior production operators also may:

• Identify safety hazards.
• Issue safe work permits.
• Supervise work crews.
• Make sure staff follow safety rules.
• Monitor environmental issues and report incidents.

Oil field production operators:

• Are responsible for a number of wells.
• Some oil field production operators, called pumpers, check wellhead equipment.
• Other oil field production operators, called battery operators, work field stations that have treatment units, water disposal units, and storage units.
• Most are responsible for wellhead equipment, batteries, and satellite facilities.
• May operate carbon dioxide systems.
• May operate water injection systems.
• Steam flood operators must have additional power engineering certification.
• May have to manually close, open or adjust valves and pressures.
• Check gathering systems that transport any unused gas.
• Take pressure and flow readings at oil wells.
• Compute and record well test data.
• Examine equipment on the wellhead to ensure it is running properly.
• Inspect flow lines from the oil well.
• Supervise hot oilers and pressure trucks.
• Examine oil lines for leaks, hydrates or wax plugging.
• Maintain equipment and troubleshoot problems.
• Isolate parts of systems for inspection, repair and cleaning.
• Report their findings, sometimes by mobile radio.
• Maintain good relations with land owners.

At treatment units in batteries, they may:

• Obtain samples and readings.
• Input data to a computer program.
• Conduct basic tests on different substances.
• Add chemicals to the unit.
• Maintain equipment.

At water disposal units and oil storage tanks, they usually:

• Measure pressures, temperatures and flow rates.
• Check storage capabilities.
• Measure levels in the tanks.
• Maintain equipment.

Gas Field Production Operators:

• Check equipment that controls the flow and pressure of the well.
• Check valves, flow-lines, and hydrate suppression systems.
• Take readings of temperatures, pressures, and flow rates.
• Take gas samples.
• Maintain equipment.
• Also may bring on wells or shut in wells.
• Operators must check heaters in the gathering system.
• Relight pilot lights.
• Check for corrosion and flow-line leaks.
• Adjust valves that control flow from gathering lines.
• Check compressors.
• Add anti-rust or dewpoint depression chemicals.
• Conduct basic tests on the samples.

People working in this trade need the following characteristics:

• Excellent speaking and writing skills.
• Mechanical aptitude.
• Can use information to solve problems.
• Good eye-hand co-ordination.
• Excellent vision including colour vision.
• Good hearing.
• Strong, flexible.
• Able to lift heavy equipment.
• Good math skills.
• Able to read and make charts and graphs.
• Able to work alone.
• Able to see unsafe hazardous and fix.
• Can work in high stress.
• Can make decisions in high stress.
• Enjoy working with equipment, instruments and machinery.

In Alberta, post-secondary institutions throughout the province offer power engineering courses that may be useful for people interested in becoming field production operators (see the Power Engineer occupational profile). Oil field production operators who wish to operate steam injection units used in enhanced recovery operations must have at least a Fourth Class Power Engineering Certificate. Gas field production operators may benefit from taking gas processing operations training.

The following institutions offer related post-secondary programs:

• Enform in Calgary and Nisku (near Edmonton) offers training courses.
• Keyano College in Fort McMurray offers a Process Operator co-op certificate program. The entrance requirement is a high school diploma with English Language Arts 20-1 or 20-1, Pure or Applied Math 20 and Physics 20 (or Science 20), or equivalents. Applicants also are required to successfully complete an aptitude test.
• Lakeland College in Lloydminster offers a Gas Process Operations certificate program and a one year Heavy Oil Operations Technician certificate program. Applicants for the Gas Process Operations program must be 18 years of age. The entrance requirement for the Heavy Oil Operations Technician program is a high school diploma with at least 50 per cent in Grade 12 English, Pure Math 30 (or 65 per cent in Applied Math 30) and one of the following: Physics 20, Chemistry 20 or 65 per cent in Science 20.
• The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton offers an Oil and Gas Production Operator certificate program by distance delivery. The program is designed to train professional and technically knowledgeable individuals for production and operations positions.
• Northern Lakes College in Slave Lake and Wabasca offers a five month Oilfield Operator Training certificate program. The entrance requirement includes credit in English 10-2 or equivalent and credit in Math 10-3 or equivalent. H2S, First Aid and TDG and WHMIS safety tickets are required for the work experience component of this program.
• The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary offers a one year Power and Process Operations certificate program that includes theory, work and lab experience to enable students to challenge the Fourth Class Powering Engineering exam as well as courses to complete equivalences of the Gas Plant Operation certificate program. The entrance requirement is a high school diploma with at least 60 per cent in English Language Arts 30-1 or 30-2 and Applied Math 30. SAIT also offers a Gas Process Operations certificate of achievement by distance delivery.

Continuing education programs may be offered on an as needed basis.

For current information about programs, admission requirements and mature student admission policies, please check post-secondary calendars or websites.

According to the 2011 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, Albertans in the Petroleum, Gas and Chemical Process Operators occupational group earned on average from $29.02 to $43.63 an hour. The mean wage for this group was $38.38 an hour. Salaries for field production operators are generally at the low end of this range.