About Petrol Gang Recruitment

Why we exist

Most recruitment agencies that cover US oil and gas treat it as one more vertical to staff. A brief lands. A generalist consultant runs a keyword search against a mixed database. A stack of resumes arrives on the drilling manager’s desk. Half of the candidates have never worked a horizontal well in the Permian. The engineer pitched as API-580 has expired credentials. The turnaround planner who left three refineries inside two years looks fine on paper.

Petrol Gang Recruitment was set up to do the opposite. We are a specialist US energy desk covering upstream E&P, oilfield services, midstream and pipelines, downstream refining, petrochemicals, drilling and completions, HSE and process safety, LNG, energy transition, reservoir and geoscience, executive search, and commercial/land/trading. We take nothing outside those twelve practices. Every consultant on the team is fluent in the discipline they recruit for, and every candidate we introduce has been screened against the actual credential, basin experience and package bar you set on the intake call.

What we do

We place permanent US oil, gas and energy talent for operators, oilfield services firms, midstream operators, refining and petrochemical companies, LNG operators, PE-backed portfolio companies, and standalone energy-transition players. That runs from field-hardened technical hires through VP appointments, with one consultant accountable from the intake call through onboarding follow-up at day 90.

How we vet

Every candidate on a Petrol Gang shortlist has been assessed against the same standard before an introduction:

• Professional licenses and certifications verified against the issuing body (API-510, 570, 653, 580, 1160, 1173, PE license, PSM, OSHA 30)
• SPE, AAPG, SEG membership confirmed where relevant to the discipline
• Right-to-work status confirmed, including any active security clearance for federal-adjacent work
• Basin experience validated against your play type: unconventional shale, conventional, offshore, gas processing, refining, petchem, LNG
• Current package broken down in USD: base, bonus, LTIP, per-diem where relevant, benefits, notice position
• Motivation for move, market activity, competing processes in flight
• Reference readiness confirmed before we send the resume

Every shortlist arrives with our written notes on each candidate. If we cannot explain why someone meets the credential bar and the basin fit, their resume stays on our desk.

Who we work with

Our clients include US-listed operators, PE-backed portfolio companies, oilfield services majors and independents, national and regional refiners, petrochemical operators along the Gulf Coast, US LNG terminal operators, midstream MLPs, and standalone energy-transition players (renewables developers, CCS project sponsors, hydrogen hub operators). They are hiring managers who want a properly researched shortlist and who will hold a search to a decision timetable instead of letting it drift for six months.

How we judge a placement

We judge a placement about eighteen months after the offer letter is signed. By then the drilling engineer should have closed out a critical pad on plan, the refinery turnaround should have come in under budget for the second time, and the midstream operations lead should have lifted compressor-station uptime and kept it there. That is the outcome we recruit for.

Our standards

• Basin-fluent screening. Every consultant is fluent in the basin and discipline they recruit for.
• Tell the truth. If a package band is light for the discipline and the current market, we say so before we start sourcing.
• One consultant, end to end. Same person from intake through onboarding follow-up.
• Discretion by default. Every approach is confidential. Every brief is confidential until you say otherwise.
• Stand behind the work. A written replacement guarantee on every placement, honored as written.

Talk to us

Use the contact form and we will come back within one business day. We are available Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Central Time.