A family member used to be a Safety Engineer for ONGC and ADNOC. He had visited oil rigs for quite a bit early during his career and even back (1990s) then, mos

A family member used to be a Safety Engineer for ONGC and ADNOC. He had visited oil rigs for quite a bit early during his career and even back (1990s) then, most modern rigs were automated. He used to tell me stories about how close shit would hit the fan because people became used to machines making decisions that they became a lot more lax - so companies even back then were trying their best to get rid of humans for such jobs. That said, the most manpower needed is during the initial phase, after which you could safely run with almost half the crew.