{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/gas-compressor-and-gas-pumping-station-operators/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators", "soc_code": "53-7071", "category": "Transportation", "us_employment": 3510, "median_annual_wage": 77320 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 41, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 9, "embodiment": 14, "liability_shield": 7, "trust_premium": 3, "judgment_accountability": 8 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "A 9 reflects the split: the panel work — logging suction/discharge pressures, trimming recycle valves to hold a dispatch nomination, generating shift logs — is already done from a consolidated control center hundreds of miles away, while the wrench end (pulling a scrubber element, valve-and-seat changes on a recip cylinder head, blowdown and purge before a hot work permit) still needs a person on the pad, which keeps it out of the 0-6 band but nowhere near the 14+ of trades that can't be watched remotely at all.", "embodiment": "14 puts you in the uncontrolled-environment band because the station is outdoors and unattended: climbing to the cooler deck in ice, gas-sniffing flanges with an LEL meter, working around a 3,000-horsepower recip running at 300 psi discharge, and driving to a remote site at night when a unit trips on high vibration — the ceiling of 20 belongs to roles with more varied terrain and less fixed plant.", "liability_shield": "A 7 recognizes that you carry PHMSA Part 192 Subpart N operator qualification for each covered task, plus H2S and confined-space tickets, and an OQ card can be pulled — but nothing is licensed in your name the way a stationary engineer's boiler license or a P.E. stamp is, so the pipeline company holds the compliance exposure, not you personally.", "trust_premium": "3 because gas leaves the station metered and odorless to anyone downstream; the shippers, the dispatcher, and the ratepayer never learn which operator was on shift, and your work product is a flow rate and a clean log, not a relationship anyone would pay to keep.", "judgment_accountability": "8 fits calls that are real but bounded — deciding to shut a unit down on rising rod-load or bearing temp rather than nursing it to the next scheduled outage, when to declare a leak an emergency versus a work order — while nomination volumes, pressure limits, and MAOP are set by dispatch and the gas control tariff, not by you." }, "rationale": "The monitoring half of this job — reading gauges, logging pressures and flow rates, adjusting throughput to meet dispatch orders, writing shift reports — has already been centralized into SCADA control rooms, and software handles setpoint optimization better than a person watching a panel. What holds is the physical half: walking the station, isolating and packing a unit, changing filters and lube oil on reciprocating compressors, sniffing out leaks, and being the qualified body on site when a unit trips at 2 a.m. This is a small occupation (about 3,500 jobs) already thinned by remote operation; the survivors look increasingly like field technicians with an operator title.", "outlook": "Headcount keeps drifting down as stations run unmanned from central control rooms, and the remaining jobs consolidate into roving field-technician routes covering multiple stations.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift is genuine here: as SCADA and setpoint optimization absorb the remaining monitoring/logging tier, what is left is field diagnosis on reciprocating units — valve and ring failures, rod packing leaks, vibration and pulsation troubleshooting, hot work permitting. If the operator title consolidates into a qualified field-tech role (as it already has at many midstream operators), the residual day is largely work current AI cannot do at usable quality.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "PHMSA methane-detection and leak-survey obligations under the 2020 PIPES Act / 2024 gas gathering and leak detection rulemaking push more scheduled walk-throughs, above-ground surveys and follow-up repair verification onto site-qualified personnel; drones and fixed sensors flag but do not isolate, blind, or repack a unit.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "49 CFR Part 192 Subpart N Operator Qualification requires an identified qualified individual to perform and be accountable for covered tasks. If PHMSA or a state pipeline safety program tightens OQ to bar remote/automated performance of covered tasks such as valve isolation, purging and pressure testing — or requires a named on-site qualified person to sign the lockout/tagout and hot work permit rather than a control-room operator — the shield strengthens materially.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If post-incident enforcement (NTSB/PHMSA findings after a station rupture or overpressure event) hardens the expectation that the on-site qualified operator, not the control room, owns the emergency shutdown and blowdown call, the role formally owns a consequential ambiguous decision. Union or company operating procedures granting field stop-work authority over dispatch orders would show the same shift.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "No route to a trust premium: buyers are pipeline shippers and utilities who never see the operator and pay for delivered pressure, not for a human. Also note the headcount ceiling — even fully raised, this is a ~3,500-job occupation still contracting through control-room consolidation, so a higher resistance score describes fewer people." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 3560, "wage": 62810 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 3460, "wage": 65210 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 3440, "wage": 66160 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 3800, "wage": 67840 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 2910, "wage": 70720 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 3740, "wage": 59990 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 4400, "wage": 61870 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 5110, "wage": 71510 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 3510, "wage": 77320 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -1.4, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "stationary-engineers-and-boiler-operators", "title": "Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 64, "median_wage": 78620, "overlap": 81, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation", "Systems Evaluation", "Operations Analysis" ] }, { "slug": "gas-plant-operators", "title": "Gas Plant Operators", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 53, "median_wage": 87820, "overlap": 80, "skills_to_close": [ "Operations Analysis", "Mathematics", "Systems Evaluation", "Learning Strategies" ] }, { "slug": "control-and-valve-installers-and-repairers-except-mechanical-door", "title": "Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "median_wage": 74340, "overlap": 80, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation", "Equipment Selection", "Operations Analysis" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }