Subsector, 211
Oil and Gas Extraction
113,950 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $122,890 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 43 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 47%
- 13%
- 40%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 15% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 19%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 81% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wellhead Pumpers | 12,190 | 15% | 3.7 million | $76K |
| General and Operations Managers | 6,710 | 23% | 3.2 million | $216K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,880 | 78% | 3 million | $59K |
| Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas | 10,010 | 12% | 2.5 million | $65K |
| Office Clerks, General | 2,170 | 54% | 2.5 million | $43K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 4,180 | 27% | 2.3 million | $127K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 4,480 | 15% | 1.4 million | $76K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 1,450 | 43% | 1.3 million | $50K |
| Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers | 1,280 | 42% | 1.1 million | $93K |
| Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Managers | 1,670 | 32% | 1.1 million | $151K |
| Compliance Officers | 1,360 | 37% | 1 million | $95K |
| Accountants and Auditors | 5,040 | 9% | 974,950 | $111K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 116 smaller jobs (21,610 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Monitor control panels during pumping operations to ensure that materials are being pumped at the correct pressure, density, rate, and concentration.Wellhead Pumpers3.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.Accountants and Auditors1.3 million hours98% of the task within reach
- Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes.Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas1.2 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Analyze data to recommend placement of wells and supplementary processes to enhance production.Petroleum Engineers986,071 hours90% of the task within reach
- Select fishing methods or tools for removing obstacles such as liners, broken casing, screens, or drill pipe.Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas974,189 hours100% of the task within reach
- Estimate material or worker requirements to complete jobs.First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers971,248 hours100% of the task within reach
- Simulate reservoir performance for different recovery techniques, using computer models.Petroleum Engineers933,818 hours69% of the task within reach
- Design and implement environmental controls on oil and gas operations.Petroleum Engineers933,818 hours69% of the task within reach
- Manage and oversee operations, maintenance, administration, and improvement of commercial, industrial, or residential properties.Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Managers925,819 hours100% of the task within reach
- Evaluate financial reporting systems, accounting or collection procedures, or investment activities and make recommendations for changes to procedures, operating systems, budgets, or other financial control functions.Financial Managers895,365 hours94% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Inside this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works