On an oil and gas operation, the Drilling and Production Superintendent runs field operations — drilling progress, production rates, equipment uptime, safety, and the coordination across rigs, wellsites, and processing facilities that turns subsurface plans into measurable barrels and cubic feet.
Drilling and Production Superintendent pay typically runs $67K–$164K at this level, and jobs in this field are projected to grow 4% through 2034. The next title up is often Senior Drilling and Production Superintendent.
A typical week tends to involve morning drilling and production reviews, on-site visits to rigs and well pads, coordination with reservoir and production engineering, contractor management, and the steady safety and environmental compliance work every operation owes. Operations run 24/7, and on-call exposure is the baseline.
Coordination spans rig crews, contractors, engineering, HSE, regulators, and corporate operations leadership. The hardest part is often balancing pace and cost against safety and reliability — pushing for spud-to-rig-release improvements while also catching the small signals that prevent incidents. A serious safety event can define a career.
People who tend to thrive here are operationally relentless, technically credible with field crews, and comfortable making cost-vs-safety calls under pressure. If you prefer planned, predictable work or dislike remote field exposure, the role can grind. If you find satisfaction in a field that hits production targets safely and a crew that trusts how you operate, the role can be both demanding and rewarding.
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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 →On an oil and gas operation, the Drilling and Production Superintendent runs field operations — drilling progress, production rates, equipment uptime, safety, and the coordination across rigs, wellsites, and processing facilities that turns subsurface plans into measurable barrels and cubic feet.
Median pay for a Drilling and Production Superintendent is about $103K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $47K to $208K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Monitoring, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 4.4% through 2034, with roughly 3.6 million people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Senior Drilling And Production Superintendent, F and B Director (Food and Beverage Director), and L and D Director (Learning and Development Director).
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