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.
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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I think this depends on your goal. If you want to LIVE in an international location for a long period of time, you might want to look at companies that have opportunities in the countries in which you are interested. For example, engineers are usually in pretty strong demand in the Middle East That said, be aware that it can be a bit challenging for women (I assume by your name that you a woman). Saudi Aramco is usually hiring, but Saudi Arabia can be very challening for professional women. Other countries like Qatar (see RasGas company) and the UAE are more "westernized". If you want to TRAVEL to foreign countries, one of your best bets would be to start in a drilling position with one of the large integrated oil companies (Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, etc). Drillers tend to travel the most and there are opportunities for rotational assignments (28 days on and 28 days off) and you can travel on your days off and really see the world.
Depending on your nationality, it can be difficult to get hired by a foreign company if there are work permit requirements and / or requirements for the company to hire local citizens before hiring non-nationals.
Best of luck to you.
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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 are most welcome Bernard.
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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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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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