NOC 85111: Oil and gas drilling, servicing and related labourers

Oil and gas drilling, servicing and related labourers carry out a variety of general labouring duties and operate equipment to assist in the drilling and servicing of oil and gas wells. This unit group also includes labourers who assist in geophysical prospecting for oil and gas. They are employed by drilling and well servicing contractors and by petroleum producing companies.

Express Entry eligibility

• Skilled work (TEER 0 to 3): no, TEER 5 does not count for Express Entry.
• Canadian Experience Class: does not count.
• Federal Skilled Worker Program: does not count.
• Federal Skilled Trades Program: not one of the eligible trades.
• High-wage occupation (from November 3, 2026): no. No high-wage add-on, and a job offer in it earns no CRS points.

TEER 5: Occupations that usually need short-term work demonstration and no formal education. Every program has other requirements too, such as language test results and, for FSW, a points test.

Category-based draws

NOC 85111 is not on any of IRCC’s occupation category lists. You can still be invited in general, Canadian Experience Class or other program draws if you qualify through other experience.

Category lists checked on canada.ca on 2026-10-17. IRCC category-based selection

CRS points for work in NOC 85111

None. Work in TEER 4 and 5 occupations earns no Canadian work points in the CRS.

See Canadian work points and the median-wage rule.

Main duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

• Manipulate sections of pipe or drill stem at the rig floor during drilling and during the removal and replacement of strings of pipe or drill stem and drill bit
• Maintain drilling equipment on the drill floor
• Handle, sort and move drill tools, pipe, cement and other materials
• Clean up rig areas
• Assist in setting up, taking down and transporting drilling and service rigs and service equipment
• May drive trucks to transport materials and well service equipment.

For Express Entry your duties must match the lead statement and most of the main duties above.

Example job titles

• floorman/woman - oil and gas drilling
• leasehand
• oil field labourer
• roughneck
• roustabout
• service rig helper
• shakerhand
• swamper - oil and gas
• well treatment helper
• wireline helper

Employment requirements

• Completion of secondary school may be required.
• Completion of introductory college or petroleum industry-approved training courses may be required.
• Certificates in hydrogen sulphide awareness, workplace hazardous materials information system (WHMIS) or transportation of dangerous goods (TDG) may be required.

Similar jobs with a different code

• 83101Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and related workers
• 84101Oil and gas well drilling and related workers and services operators