As a graduate engineer that's a very rare and unusual salary position even in the oil and gas industry, all I can say is he must be **** hot. Most people walking into the oil and gas industry will never see those sort of wages let alone at early doors. The uplift rate for being offshore is nice and i do enjoy getting it when i visit other countrys / rigs however i'm pleased i only make flying visits.
Go for it, i would never want to live or work for long periods offshore regardless of the pay, you have a long ladder to climb, basically what i'm saying is don't expect to fall into a job paying 40 - 50k a year, no doubt the industry can pay well but it's not quite the free-for-all some people seem to think.