{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/gas-plant-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 Plant Operators", "soc_code": "51-8092", "category": "Production", "us_employment": 18030, "median_annual_wage": 87820 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 53, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 11, "embodiment": 16, "liability_shield": 8, "trust_premium": 4, "judgment_accountability": 14 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Board work — trending suction pressure, adjusting dehydrator regeneration cycles, logging odorant injection rates — is already sitting inside DCS loops and APC, but the field half (lining up a compressor for start, draining a knockout pot, changing amine filters, walking a hot bolt-up) is still hands and wrenches, which is why this lands mid-band at 11 rather than down with pure console jobs.", "embodiment": "You are climbing to the top of a stabilizer tower in weather, entering H2S-monitored areas with a four-gas meter, torquing flanges on live hydrocarbon service, and pulling relief valves for bench testing — uncontrolled, hazardous, and irreducibly physical, which is why this is 16 and not lower; it stops short of 20 only because a real share of the shift is spent seated at the console.", "liability_shield": "No state licence gates the job: OSHA 1910.119 PSM and the operating permit put liability on the facility and the PSM-covered process, not on your name, and what you carry personally is OSHA 10/30, H2S/SCBA, confined-space entry and LOTO authorization plus company operator qualification — real credentials that take months to earn, which is why 8 rather than 3, but nothing a regulator can pull from you individually.", "trust_premium": "Nobody buying residue gas at the tailgate knows or asks which operator was on nights; the customer relationship is a contract and a meter ticket, and your credibility is internal — with the console partner, the relieving shift, and the maintenance planner who trusts your written turnover — which is worth a few points but not a product.", "judgment_accountability": "When a train upsets at 0300 with the engineer 200 miles away, you decide whether to ride it out, hot-shutdown, or blow to flare, and you make that call on incomplete instrumentation with sour gas and public exposure on the line under the plant's emergency procedures; the 14 rather than 18 reflects that most shifts run inside written operating limits and SOPs where deviation is escalated, not chosen." }, "rationale": "Continuous monitoring of pressures, flows, and compressor loads is exactly what SCADA and advanced process control already do better than a human watching a board, and shift-log writing and trend analysis are trivially automatable. What survives is the physical half: walking the unit, lining up valves, hanging tags for lockout/tagout, isolating a leaking flange, and making the judgment call to trip or blow down a train during an upset before anyone can model it. Employers are consolidating control rooms and running more plants per operator, so headcount shrinks even where the field role stays.", "outlook": "Gas processing keeps running, but remote-operated and multi-plant control centers mean fewer operators per facility over the next decade, with the surviving jobs weighted toward field response, safety authority, and maintenance-capable operators.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "PHMSA or a state PUC codifying a minimum qualified-operator staffing rule for gas processing/compressor stations — analogous to PHMSA's Operator Qualification rule (49 CFR 192 Subpart N) being extended to require a named, qualified human to authorize remote-initiated blowdowns, ESD resets, and startups after upset. Also OSHA PSM (1910.119) enforcement interpretations that hold a specific operator-in-charge accountable for hot work permits and LOTO signoffs that AI cannot execute.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift is real here: as APC and remote consolidated control rooms absorb board-watching, trending, and log writing, what remains is abnormal-operations response, turnaround/startup sequencing, and field isolation — the judgment tier. Score rises mechanically as the routine tier leaves, without any new law.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Growth of hydrogen blending, CO2 capture, and LNG/RNG interconnects adds nonstandard field equipment, sampling, and cryogenic handling in configurations that vary plant to plant, raising the share of work requiring an on-site human with hands on valves and analyzers.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "A high-consequence incident (e.g., an Aliso Canyon- or Freeport LNG-class event) traced to remote/automated control leading to CSB recommendations and insurer requirements for a designated on-site operator with trip authority not overridable by the algorithm.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no plausible route — gas is a fungible commodity and no buyer pays extra for human-operated molecules. Headcount consolidation (more plants per operator) shrinks the occupation even if per-worker scores rise." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 14890, "wage": 69030 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 14620, "wage": 71070 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 14410, "wage": 70710 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 14990, "wage": 72970 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 15110, "wage": 77850 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 14290, "wage": 79460 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 15930, "wage": 82560 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 15910, "wage": 83400 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 18030, "wage": 87820 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 21.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "aircraft-mechanics-and-service-technicians", "title": "Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 71, "median_wage": 79870, "overlap": 81, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Installation", "Troubleshooting" ] }, { "slug": "ship-engineers", "title": "Ship Engineers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 73, "median_wage": 109530, "overlap": 81, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation", "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Equipment Selection" ] }, { "slug": "electrical-and-electronics-repairers-powerhouse-substation-and-relay", "title": "Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "median_wage": 103020, "overlap": 79, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Equipment Selection", "Service Orientation" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }