As of June 2026, Gas Plant Operators has an AI-exposure score of 63/100 (High exposure) on the AI-Safe Careers index, blending O*NET tasks, the Anthropic Economic Index, the Penn/OpenAI study, and BLS data. This is an estimate of task exposure, not a prediction of job loss.
Gas Plant Operators
More exposed than 77% of the roles we track. Median pay ~US$87,820. About 1,300 projected openings a year (BLS 2024–34 — growth plus replacement).
Pay & demand figures are US medians (BLS, in USD) — your local figures will differ. Your exposure score applies broadly.
How you compare to similar Production roles
Your tasks, by AI exposure
- Calculate gas ratios to detect deviations from specifications, using testing apparatus.
- Record, review, and compile operations records, test results, and gauge readings such as temperatures, pressures, concentrations, and flows.
- Change charts in recording meters.
- Monitor transportation and storage of flammable and other potentially dangerous products to ensure that safety guidelines are followed.
- Test gas, chemicals, and air during processing to assess factors such as purity and moisture content, and to detect quality problems or gas or chemical leaks.
- Contact maintenance crews when necessary.
- Start and shut down plant equipment.
- Operate construction equipment to install and maintain gas distribution systems.
- Control fractioning columns, compressors, purifying towers, heat exchangers, and related equipment to extract nitrogen and oxygen from air.
- Signal or direct workers who tend auxiliary equipment.
- Monitor equipment functioning, observe temperature, level, and flow gauges, and perform regular unit checks to ensure that all equipment is operating as it should.
- Determine causes of abnormal pressure variances, and make corrective recommendations, such as installation of pipes to relieve overloading.
- Control equipment to regulate flow and pressure of gas to feedlines of boilers, furnaces, and related steam-generating or heating equipment.
- Control operation of compressors, scrubbers, evaporators, and refrigeration equipment to liquefy, compress, or regasify natural gas.
- Distribute or process gas for utility companies or industrial plants, using panel boards, control boards, and semi-automatic equipment.
- Adjust temperature, pressure, vacuum, level, flow rate, or transfer of gas to maintain processes at required levels or to correct problems.
- Clean, maintain, and repair equipment, using hand tools, or request that repair and maintenance work be performed.
- Read logsheets to determine product demand and disposition, or to detect malfunctions.
- Collaborate with other operators to solve unit problems.
No durable tasks identified for this role — its real, individually-assessed tasks consistently read as augmentable (68%).
Safer adjacent roles
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