AI exposure: Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
Operate equipment to increase oil flow from producing wells or to remove stuck pipe, casing, tools, or other obstructions from drilling wells. Includes fishing-tool technicians.
Reading this score
computedAt 14.4% of weighted task load, Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas sits at the 23th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 74.2% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 19 tasks it averages 2.47 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes, at 73.3%. The least is Perforate well casings or sidewalls of boreholes with explosive charges, at 0.0%. A gap of 73.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within construction and extraction occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 61 roles in the group is 5.0%, and only 5 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 19 tasks, 3 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 14 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.97 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.47 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.16 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.66 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.66 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.00 | 0-3 |
Task by task
19 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 4.39 | exposed |
| Select fishing methods or tools for removing obstacles such as liners, broken casing, screens, or drill pipe. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.91 | exposed |
| Operate pumps that circulate water, oil, or other fluids through wells to remove sand or other materials obstructing the free flow of oil. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.18 | exposed |
| Confer with others to gather information regarding pipe or tool sizes or borehole conditions in wells. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.19 | assisted |
| Apply green technologies or techniques, such as the use of coiled tubing, slim-hole drilling, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, or gas lift systems. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.81 | assisted |
| Examine unserviceable wells to determine actions to be taken to improve well conditions. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.46 | untouched |
| Insert detection instruments into wells with obstructions. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 3.19 | untouched |
| Drive truck-mounted units to well sites. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Maintain and perform safety inspections on equipment and tools. | 5.0% | 7.5% | 87.5% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Listen to engines, rotary chains, or other equipment to detect faulty operations or unusual well conditions. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 4.50 | untouched |
| Monitor sound wave-generating or detecting mechanisms to determine well fluid levels. | 5.0% | 20.0% | 75.0% | 3.29 | untouched |
| Operate controls that raise derricks or level rigs. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.52 | untouched |
| Install pressure-control devices onto wellheads. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Interpret instrument readings to ascertain the depth of obstruction. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.09 | untouched |
| Thread cables through derrick pulleys, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.97 | untouched |
| Close and seal wells no longer in use. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Direct drilling crews performing activities such as assembling and connecting pipe, applying weights to drill pipes, or drilling around lodged obstacles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Operate specialized equipment to remove obstructions by backing off or severing pipes by chemical or explosive action. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Perforate well casings or sidewalls of boreholes with explosive charges. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.68 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.