Working Offshore Checklist

Deciding to work offshore as a contractor is a major career move with enormous earning potential. The rewards do come with challenging working conditions and personal responsibilities, however.

Before you get started on your new offshore contract, there are a few things you need to get in order. We’ve put this handy checklist together to make sure you’ve got everything in place before you make the jump to becoming an offshore worker.

1. Your Rate

Shifting from full-time employment to contracting means moving from a guaranteed salary to a contract rate. It’s important to establish your rate immediately for the eventual negotiations you’ll have to make with every future contract. Multiple factors affect this, especially in the offshore industry where location and commodity prices matter.

Contract Calculator has a Permanent to Contracting Calculator you can use to figure out a baseline hourly rate from your previous full-time employment salary. It’s a really handy tool to have in your internet bookmarks.

Research your industry’s market rate, and adjust for your experience and expectations. If you’re in the oil and gas or renewable energy industries, it’s worth looking up their respective rates to gauge how much you can charge. In sectors such as ROV, Hydrographic Survey and Underwater Inspection, day rates are susceptible to market conditions and can therefore be inconsistent from client to client (and even from project to project).

As a freelancer in a specialist sector, it’s important you seek professional advice on the market and expected day rates within your discipline.

2. Payment Structure

Offshore contractors can opt to be a sole trader, start a limited company or work with an umbrella company, which is a third party supplier who acts as an employer on behalf of contractors saving you all the administration of running the limited company yourself. Given that one of the primary reasons for contracting is the higher net income, the potential liabilities of being a sole trader isn’t ideal.

Between setting up a limited company and working with an umbrella, it is up to you how much control you want to have.

Running a limited company gives you full control over your career and potentially higher earnings, thanks to a lighter tax burden. Meanwhile, working with an umbrella is much more convenient, as all administrative and accounting tasks are handled by the umbrella.

3. Valid Expenses

Contracting allows for certain tax reliefs to offset its financial risks. The following are the expenses you can claim as an offshore contractor:

• Travel expenses to temporary workplaces
• Accommodations and meals before being transported to a rig or vessel
• Tools and training purchased to complete contract work
• Life insurance
• Business insurances
• Pension scheme approved by HMRC
• Bank charges and interest if you set up a limited company
• Accountancy costs if you set up a limited company
• The VAT on expenses if your limited company is VAT-registered

4. Insurance

Offshore contractors don’t get any benefits, including insurance. Legal action taken against you can be incredibly costly, so not having professional indemnity insurance in place can be risky. Also, an agency contract typically won’t cover you in case a client sues you for a financially-costly mistake or negligence.

More than likely you’ll be legally required to get professional indemnity insurance by clients looking to hire you, but if you’re not then it’s important you have it anyway.

5. Cash Buffer

Working in the contracting industry can be highly profitable, but there may be long periods of no steady income. Before you commit to the lifestyle of an offshore contractor, save up for the possibility of not having work for an extended amount of time.

A cash buffer that can last you three months without a job is the minimum you should have. Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com recommends that for true peace of mind, you have a six-month cash buffer. Make sure it covers emergencies such as medical operations.

6. Specialist Job Boards

Finding contracts isn’t always easy, so make it easier for yourself by going to a specialist job board matching the industry you’re working in, instead of a general job board.

Specialist job boards show job ads that will more likely suit your particular set of skills and experience. Their search tools are designed with their markets in mind for simpler job sorting and navigation. They also offer content and news specific to their industry that could prove insightful.

7. Curriculum Vitae

Your CV has about 7.4 seconds to catch a recruiter’s attention. It might not even pass the applicant tracking software that 75% of recruiters and talent managers use.

Tailor your CV to the project work you’re hoping to secure. Acknowledge what the client needs to know about you for their projects, and clearly lay out the skills and experiences you have that directly address those needs. Provide concrete dates and figures detailing your relevant work experience, ensure that your training, qualification and competencies are clearly visible (with expiry dates, if applicable) and make sure that you clearly state any software, equipment, tooling, vehicle, vessel, client and project experience in an easy-to-read format (such as a grid, matrix or table)

8. Client/Agency Solvency

Before signing a contract with a client or a recruitment agency, it pays to check their credit report to see if they are solvent. You do not want to blindly enter a contract with a company or agency that has a poor credit score, as you run the risk of not getting paid.

If the client or agency you are planning on working for is based in the UK, you can look up their basic information from the Companies House register. With that information, you can then register and pay a reasonable fee to a reputable online credit agency to download a credit report.

For companies based abroad, you can do a Google search for business credit agencies with the name of the country as one of the keywords.

9. Payment Terms

Working as a contractor in the offshore industry usually means you will be charging with a day rate instead of an hourly rate. According to the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), you should be receiving regular monthly payments, including statements of your accounts. You should also be able to transfer part or all of your wages, as well as keep currency conversion charges at reasonable limits.

Keep in mind that whilst 12 hour days are expected, shifts can sometimes last 12 hours or more once handovers, reports and team talks have been taken into account. Since overtime pay isn’t guaranteed as a contractor, you need to be clear with your client how many hours work for you.

Under the MLC, however, you should have at least 10 hours of rest within a 24-hour period or 77 hours within any 7-day period. If you're called out of your rest period for any reason (e.g. crew exercises), you are entitled to make up for lost rest time.

10. Destination Research

Offshore contractors tend to find work all over the globe. Travelling is one of the perks of the job, but make sure you your homework on the country and waters where you will be working.

Read up on the customs to ensure a smoother experience working with locals and avoid souring relationships because of a cultural faux pas. It doesn’t hurt to learn a couple of practical phrases in their language.

You can consult travel guides, or better yet, talk to people with first-hand experience living and working in the region.

11. Holiday Planning

The offshore industry subjects workers to long months with the looming difficulties of harsh weather conditions. Use the flexibility in your schedule to plan your holidays according to the length and number of contracts you plan on taking.

12. Certification and Documentation

Offshore work requires applicants to pass medical examinations. If you’re working in UK waters, you need an offshore medical certificate from a doctor approved by Oil & Gas UK. You also need to have Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET) or FOET (Further Offshore Emergency Training) and, for the UK North Sea, Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) certificates and an OGUK Offshore Medical certificate. Make sure that you only get these from providers accredited by OPITO.

When it comes to Wind Farms and renewable projects, GWO (Global Wind Organisation) certificates are becoming much more prevalent. Meanwhile, clients may sometimes request a Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) certificate, especially for specialist offshore workers (e.g. masters, officers, radio operators and ratings forming part of a watch). When travelling by helicopter, CA-EBS and HUET certifications are mandatory.

For foreign clients, coordinate with them regarding which medical and safety training certifications you need in their part of the world. For instance, work in the Norwegian sector requires an OLF Survival or Escape Chute training. Offshore work in Malaysia usually requires a Petronas Medical.

You should also look into required immunisations upon entering certain countries. Yellow Fever vaccinations are required for many areas of the world, while some countries even require offshore workers to have TB inoculations prior to travelling.

Make sure you get your passport and visa sorted immediately if you are planning on working abroad.

If you’re looking to book offshore work before the year ends, check out our jobs page for available contracts in the destinations of your choice. The team at UTM Consultants are always happy to provide expert, impartial advice on working offshore, from rates to certification and documentation, so drop us a line on +44 (0) 1726 218 890 / +44 (0) 117 244 1965.