A Westhoughton man has a working day which can include sandstorms, scorpions, snakes and searing heat.

For Ainslie Casson works in Algeria.

He is an exploration geophysicist who runs his own business, carrying out worldwide seismic exploration surveys for a number of major oil companies.

He is currently working for Amerada-Hess, an independent American oil company, on a survey of 1,032 square kilometres of the Sahara Desert.

Home for six or seven-week periods is a mobile trailer -- equipped with a computer -- about 100 kilometres from the nearest town.

There are another four expatriates with him and a crew of about 300 Algerians.

"It is physically gruelling and mentally you have to be a bit different," Mr Casson said cheerfully before embarking on his latest trip.

The exercise, a joint venture between the American company and the Algerian government, is designed to establish the extent of oil and gas resources in the area under review.

Mr Casson, aged 42, who was born in Leicestershire and has lived in Westhoughton since 1988, is used to a tough working life which has also taken him to the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea and the Caspian Sea.

He set up his own company in 1996 after previously working for various contractors.

He holds a Masters degree in Strategy and a post-graduate diploma in Management (both from Manchester Metropolitan University) and the CIM Diploma in Marketing.

Although he is used to daily routines such as checking his boots for scorpions before he puts them on, he is finding that others are not prepared to do the same.

"No one is coming in to the industry," he said. "They do not want to put up with the conditions."