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Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers

Tend, control, or operate power-driven, stationary, or portable pumps and manifold systems to transfer gases, oil, other liquids, slurries, or powdered materials to and from various vessels and processes.

What you’d do

  • Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.
  • Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.
  • Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.
  • Turn valves and start pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.
  • Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.
  • Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.
  • Tend vessels that store substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials, checking levels of substances by using calibrated rods or by reading mercury gauges and tank charts.
  • Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.

Skills that matter

  • Operations Monitoring
  • Monitoring
  • Operation and Control
  • Active Listening
  • Critical Thinking
  • Reading Comprehension

How to get there

Little to some preparation: usually a high school diploma or GED, though some jobs do not need one

Also called

  • Outside Operator
  • Pipeline Operator
  • Pumper
  • Tank Farm Operator
  • Boom Pump Operator
  • Chemical Pumper

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