Job Check
Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas
Rig derrick equipment and operate pumps to circulate mud or fluid through drill hole.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Start pumps that circulate mud through drill pipes and boreholes to cool drill bits and flush out drill cuttings.Mostly human for now
- 02Control the viscosity and weight of the drilling fluid.Mostly human for now
- 03Listen to mud pumps and check regularly for vibration and other problems to ensure that rig pumps and drilling mud systems are working properly.Mostly human for now
- 04Inspect derricks, or order their inspection, prior to being raised or lowered.Mostly human for now
- 05Prepare mud reports, and instruct crews about the handling of any chemical additives.Mostly human for now
- 06Position and align derrick elements, using harnesses and platform climbing devices.Mostly human for now
- 07Inspect derricks for flaws, and clean and oil derricks to maintain proper working conditions.Mostly human for now
- 08Supervise crew members, and provide assistance in training them.Mostly human for now
- 09Repair pumps, mud tanks, and related equipment.Mostly human for now
- 10Steady pipes during connection to or disconnection from drill or casing strings.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
0%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 11% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 96% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Start pumps that circulate mud through drill pipes and boreholes to cool drill bits and flush out drill cuttings.
- Control the viscosity and weight of the drilling fluid.
- Listen to mud pumps and check regularly for vibration and other problems to ensure that rig pumps and drilling mud systems are working properly.