AI exposure: Wellhead Pumpers
Operate power pumps and auxiliary equipment to produce flow of oil or gas from wells in oil field.
Reading this score
computedAt 18.0% of weighted task load, Wellhead Pumpers sits at the 30th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 71.5% 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 14 tasks it averages 2.43 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 Gauge oil and gas production, at 43.8%. The least is Unload and assemble pipes and pumping equipment, at 0.0%. A gap of 43.8% 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 transportation and material moving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.3% across the group's 52 roles, with 35 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 14 tasks, 6 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 8 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 | 0.96 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.43 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.39 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.89 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.25 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.46 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauge oil and gas production. | 43.8% | 18.8% | 37.5% | 4.45 | exposed |
| Start compressor engines and divert oil from storage tanks into compressor units and auxiliary equipment to recover natural gas from oil. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.34 | exposed |
| Operate engines and pumps to shut off wells according to production schedules, and to switch flow of oil into storage tanks. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.28 | exposed |
| Open valves to return compressed gas to bottoms of specified wells to repressurize them and force oil to surface. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.16 | exposed |
| Monitor control panels during pumping operations to ensure that materials are being pumped at the correct pressure, density, rate, and concentration. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Supervise oil pumpers and other workers engaged in producing oil from wells. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 3.71 | exposed |
| Monitor pumps and flow lines for gas and fluid leaks. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.59 | untouched |
| Repair gas and oil meters and gauges. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.95 | untouched |
| Perform routine maintenance on vehicles and equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.82 | untouched |
| Change water filters. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.03 | untouched |
| Prepare trucks and equipment necessary for the type of pumping service required. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
| Attach pumps and hoses to wellheads. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.77 | untouched |
| Mix acids, chemicals, or dry cement as required for a specific job. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Unload and assemble pipes and pumping equipment, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.74 | 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.