Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
In short: today's best AI models could do about 14% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 86% of the time, stays with people.
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.
43,140 people do this job in the US. $58,160 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on6 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people34 h
Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 6 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 34 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes (about 2 h); Select fishing methods or tools for removing obstacles such as liners, broken casing, screens, or drill pipe (about 2 h); Monitor sound wave-generating or detecting mechanisms to determine well fluid levels (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 14%
- 2%
- 84%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 11%. Today's estimate: 14%.
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.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 19 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.022% to 0.021% (released February and March 2025); 0.0063% to none (August 2025 to February 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.022% | 437 of 708 | 1 of 19 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.021% | 416 of 703 | 1 of 19 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.0063% | 508 of 655 | 1 of 19 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.0019% | 652 of 672 | 1 of 19 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 19 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 19 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 19 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 71% of this job's working time as physical work. For 39% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 3% in a purpose-built cell, 36% in a structured facility. 0.75 of 3, the 243rd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 29%
- No robot shown 32%
- In a purpose-built cell 3%
- In a structured facility 36%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 19 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain and perform safety inspections on equipment and tools.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 16% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate pumps that circulate water, oil, or other fluids through wells to remove sand or other materials obstructing the free flow of oil.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, OCTIV Auto Frac (ZEUS electric fracturing platform) (Halliburton) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Direct drilling crews performing activities such as assembling and connecting pipe, applying weights to drill pipes, or drilling around lodged obstacles.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.7 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply green technologies or techniques, such as the use of coiled tubing, slim-hole drilling, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, or gas lift systems.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Install pressure-control devices onto wellheads.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Listen to engines, rotary chains, or other equipment to detect faulty operations or unusual well conditions.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, ANYmal (ANYbotics) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Close and seal wells no longer in use.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Select fishing methods or tools for removing obstacles such as liners, broken casing, screens, or drill pipe.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Examine unserviceable wells to determine actions to be taken to improve well conditions.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Drive truck-mounted units to well sites.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Kodiak Driver (Kodiak AI) on Atlas Energy Solutions-owned Class 8 trucks (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate specialized equipment to remove obstructions by backing off or severing pipes by chemical or explosive action.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SLB Neuro autonomous well intervention (wireline/slickline conveyance) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas5% now, 5% by 2028
- Roustabouts, Oil and Gas0% now, 0% by 2028
- Wellhead Pumpers15% now, 15% by 2028
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers45% now, 47% by 2028
- Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas14% now, 14% by 2028
- Helpers--Extraction Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 14% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 14% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Prepare reports of services rendered, tools used, or time required, for billing purposes (100% of the task's time now); Select fishing methods or tools for removing obstacles such as liners, broken casing, screens, or drill pipe (99% of the task's time now); and Monitor sound wave-generating or detecting mechanisms to determine well fluid levels (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Maintain and perform safety inspections on equipment and tools; Operate pumps that circulate water, oil, or other fluids through wells to remove sand or other materials obstructing the free flow of oil; and Direct drilling crews performing activities such as assembling and connecting pipe, applying weights to drill pipes, or drilling around lodged obstacles. Together such tasks are about 86% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 71% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 39% of the working time, 36% in a structured facility. Its index is 0.75 of 3. One example: OCTIV Auto Frac (ZEUS electric fracturing platform) for "operate pumps that circulate water, oil, or other fluids through wells to remove sand or other materials obstructing the free flow of oil". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 19 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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