Running operations during the plug-and-abandonment phase of an oil or gas well, you own the end-of-life work — coordinating crews, equipment, and regulatory submittals to safely shut wells, remove infrastructure, and restore the site to required condition.
A typical week often involves field oversight, crew coordination, regulatory submittals, and the steady cadence of project tracking — walking active well-pad work, coordinating cementing and tubing-pulling crews, working with state regulators on plug submittals, prepping closure documentation. You're often carrying multiple wells at different stages of decommissioning. Wells plugged and sites released tend to be the operating measures.
What surprises newer decommissioning managers is the inheritance problem — many wells arrive with incomplete records, deteriorated equipment, and decades of operational history that wasn't documented. Variance across employers can be sharp: at major oil-and-gas operators decommissioning has structured programs and budgets; at smaller operators or specialty plugging contractors the work runs leaner.
The role tends to suit people who are field-comfortable, regulatorily fluent, and patient with paperwork. Petroleum engineering and state-specific credentials anchor seniority. The trade-off is the rural site geography and the boom-bust nature of decommissioning work that follows oil-price cycles and regulatory pushes.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Business Operations roles →Running operations during the plug-and-abandonment phase of an oil or gas well, you own the end-of-life work — coordinating crews, equipment, and regulatory submittals to safely shut wells, remove infrastructure, and restore the site to required condition.
Median pay for a Decommissioning Well Site Manager is about $121K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $75K to $197K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, and Coordination.
Most people in this role hold an associate's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 1.9% through 2034, with roughly 234,380 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Site Director, Plant Supervisor, and Power Plant Operations Coordinator.
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