Oil Comp Engr
38 Years Experience
Houston, TX
Female, 60
I recently retired from a major integrated oil company after 38 years. I have degrees in Civil and Petroleum Engineering. I worked with safety, health and environmental management systems and operations in the upstream (finding and producing oil and gas) and downstream (refining, chemicals and distributions) areas. I travelled all over world, enduring good & bad business cycles and good and bad managers.
I suggest you start circulating your resume and see what's out there right now. You are early enough in your career that I don't think anyone is going to pigeonhole you as a "downstreamer" just yet. If your undergraduate grades were good, it may not be worth the time and effort to go get a master's degree. It's a simple matter of calculating the economics. How much will it cost you to go to grad school? Will you be working while going to school or a full time, non-working student. A head hunter can probably tell you what current starting salaries are for someone in your situation versus if you add on a master's degree. I would bet that the economics don't make sense. Plus, you take the chance that there will a downturn in the industry just as you are coming on the market. (It is a cyclical industry and there are no guarantees!)
Another option to consider, since you say you have only been working for 2 years, is to contact your university's career placement center and see if you still are allowed to use their services. (Some schools do allow this). They can also advise you on starting salaries, what jobs other Civil engineers from your school have been getting and may even let you interview at their center.
If you have your heart set on getting on with a smaller independent oil company or if your undergraduate grades were not so great (mostly B's and C's), then I would recommend you get an MS PE. An MSChE is going to be of more use in the downstream than in the upstream. You might also want to test the job market by posting your information on LinkedIn. Lots of headhunters cruise that site. Of course, be careful if you don't want your current employer to know you are looking because they may be cruising the site too! Best of luck to you.
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A mining bachelor's degree could be more closely allied with a petroleum masters degree than a bachelor's in civil. Again, check with the university you plan to attend.
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This is way beyond my area of expertise but i do have a basic understanding of the process, which is way more complicated than most people realize. Crude oil first goes to a refinery where it is blended with other crudes with different properties and then processed to become gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, paraffin (wax) and many, many other products. From a refinery, gasoline (just one of the products) is sold to various retail buyers and is then transported via pipeline and/or tanker truck to distribution terminals (where it may be re-sold again) and then taken to gasoline stations. I think the system we currently have, is actually pretty efficient and lets the free market function well to deliver gasoline at a competitive price to the consumer. The current system also allows us to re-route supplies during periods of severe weather and to react to changes in demand during different driving seasons.
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You need to define "advanced" chemistry. Every petroleum engineer (in the USA) will take the basic 1st chemistry course and lab in order to get a bachelors of science degree. Whether more chemistry courses will be of benefit depends on what they decide to specialize in.
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You are most welcome Bernard.
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A directional driller works for a service company and works at the well site. He or she is responsible for ensuring that the well hits the directional target. He makes reccomendactions to the company man or tool pusher about the configuration of the bottom hole assembly, how much weight to put on the bit, how fast to rotate the bit and sometimes even the type of bit. The drilling engineer has overall responsibility for all aspects of planning the week, from estimating the costs to designing the mud system to the directional drilling program to designing the casing program. The drilling engineer will spend some time at the welsite and some time in the office. The drilling engineer will have an engineering degree but the directional driller will not necessarily have an engineering degree. He may have a background in geology or science or may just have learned the trade from service company training. Years ago, when I started, a lot of the directional drillers just worked their way up from the rig floor. These days, they are more likely to have a degree and if it is a very complex set of wells, they may have an engineering degree.
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I have a daughter who is a sophomore in college, so we recently went through the process of selecting a college. You are going to work very hard (and hopefully play a litte too!) while in college, so my advice is to choose a college where you can see yourself fitting in and thriving and where you will enjoy working hard. In engineering, of course, it is very important that the program is ABET accredited (most are, but a few are not). If you are happy at your college and work hard, you will succeed. If you are concerned about the job opportunities, check in with the colleges' career placement offices to see how active they are and how much support they provide to students in finding internships and permanent employment.
You may not have as many job offers as if you attended a highly prestigious PE program, but life is about more than just "getting the job". Also, all you really need is one great job offer at a company that suits your goals. College is also about finding your passion. There is also no guarantee that you are going to love petroleum engineering, so I suggest you select a college where you can see yourself spending the next 4+ years just in case engineering does not work out for you. Also, there is no guarantee that the job market will continue to be so strong for petroleum engineers. I hope that it will, but again, be flexible and try to keep your options open. Best of luck to you.
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