Start compressor engines and divert oil from storage tanks into compressor units and auxiliary equipment to recover natural gas from oil.

“Start compressor engines and divert oil from storage tanks into compressor units and auxiliary equipment to recover natural gas from oil.” is a core task performed by Wellhead Pumpers. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 14th by importance (#3 most important). About 68% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Operate pumping systems or equipment. in Controlling Machines and Processes

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Monitor pumps and flow lines for gas and fluid leaks. · importance 4.6
• Gauge oil and gas production. · importance 4.5
• Monitor control panels during pumping operations to ensure that materials are being pumped at the correct pressure, density, rate, and concentration. · importance 4.3
• Operate engines and pumps to shut off wells according to production schedules, and to switch flow of oil into storage tanks. · importance 4.3
• Open valves to return compressed gas to bottoms of specified wells to repressurize them and force oil to surface. · importance 4.2
• Change water filters. · importance 4.0
• Repair gas and oil meters and gauges. · importance 4.0
• Prepare trucks and equipment necessary for the type of pumping service required. · importance 3.9
• Perform routine maintenance on vehicles and equipment. · importance 3.8
• Attach pumps and hoses to wellheads. · importance 3.8
• Mix acids, chemicals, or dry cement as required for a specific job. · importance 3.8
• Unload and assemble pipes and pumping equipment, using hand tools. · importance 3.7
• Supervise oil pumpers and other workers engaged in producing oil from wells. · importance 3.7
• Drive trucks to transport high-pressure pumping equipment, and chemicals, fluids, or gases to be pumped into wells.

See all tasks on the Wellhead Pumpers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-5019,
  title  = {Start compressor engines and divert oil from storage tanks into compressor units and auxiliary equipment to recover natural gas from oil.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-5019}
}