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.
In an accredited degree program in the US, it is highly likely you will be required to take inorganic chemistry. You are not very likely to be required to take organic chemistry. Depending on the program, you may be able to get credit for Advanced Placement Chemistry taken in high school. It's hard to say that chemistry is more or less important than computer science. You will need and use both subjects. Every engineer (petroleum, chemical, mechanical, etc.) these days needs to be proficient in various computer programs but that doesn't mean that you need to necessarily be able to write code. You do need to understand the limitations of the software you use, however. Understanding basic chemical concepts is important if you are a drilling engineer (chemical properties of drilling muds), a facilities engineer (understanding corrosion issues, how biocides work, sulfur recovery units in gas plants) or as a reservoir engineer (understanding reservoir fluid properties and the good old ideal gas law).
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I work for a major integrated oil company so there was a substantial training program. I also had technical mentors as well as professional mentors throughout my early career who guided me through a lot of on the job training. Engineers who start at smaller companies typically rely on on the job training from mentors and their summer internship experiences. Many of the very small independent companies hire only experienced engineers from the major oil companies because it is not economic for them to run an in house training program. I have continued to learn throughout my career and it is important to remember that you can learn from nearly everyone with whom you interface.
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When the economic climate is right (translation: the price of crude and/or natural gas is high), lots of folks have started their own oil and gas companies, especially in the US. I imagine it is much harder to do this, however, in most other countries where oil and gas reserves are owned by the government. The other companies I have seen folks start up are service companies (companies that run casing, provide corrosion prevention and monitoring, diving, etc.) There are more opportunities than I could possibly name. The key is that you need to have established expertise in the service you will provide and there needs to be an opportunity in the marketplace to allow entry. I would also advise that you better really LOVE whatever you are going to do because starting your own business is very hard work. (My spouse has his own business, so I've seen this firsthand).
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Petroleum engineers command some of the highest starting salaries of all engineers in the US. Current graduates are making around $100k/yr to start. That said, this IS a cyclical business and I can remember when the oil price collapsed ($8/bbl) in 1985 and petroleum engineers could not get jobs. Mechanical, civils, chemicals were all still able to find work outside the oil and gas industry, but petroleum engineers had a tough time.
I have been working for 33 years so I am not sure that if I describe my current situation if that will give you a good picture of things. I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that you are a young person. When I was young, I could not really relate to the salaries and assets of people in their 50's and 60's. That said, I work for a large, very stable company with and excellent pension and stock program. I will have a very comfortable retirement because I have saved for it. That said, I have been on a technical path for my whole career. My counterparts who are on the managerial path and have comparable saving habits, have second homes, boats, etc. and those folks will have a REALLY comfortable retirement.
You can read some of the earlier posts about what my job is like, in terms of benefits and downsides. I have gotten to travel all over the world, worked on some very interesting projects and met some fascinating people. On the downside, sometimes I have had to work on a rig all night in the pouring rain, waiting for a logging tool to get fished out of the hole, or gotten stuck offshore on my birthday because it was too foggy to fly in. Probably the biggest downside in my career has been getting stuck with a bad boss, but that can happen in ANY job.
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Are presidential debates actually "debates", by the traditional definition?
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Is having a weatherman really better than just throwing to a 5-day forecast screen?
A rotator just means someone who works a certain number of days (14 or 28 for example) and then has the same number of days off. Rotators usually work 12 hours per day every day of their shift. There are a variety of rotator jobs on drilling rigs and production platforms. Most of the workers do not have an engineering degree but a handful might such as the drilling rig superintendent, the subsea equipment engineer, the wireline logging engineer, the production platform superintendent and so on. You need to do some research on the websites of various energy companies (Shell, Chevron, Anadarko, etc.) as well as the various service companies (Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, etc.) to see what kinds of positions they are hiring and what the rotation schedules are. Also be aware that the unconventional (oil shale) plays are booming in south Texas and up in North Dakota. Some of those workers also work a rotational schedule.
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Yes. See the previous two postings
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Typically, a master's program will require you to have an undergraduate engineering degree, as opposed to an a technology degree. You should check direcltly with schools that offer a masters in petroleum engineering. If you had a degree in chemical engineering, for example, you could probably pursue a masters in petroleum with some additional coursework. If you have your heart set on petroleum engineering, I suggest you consider trying to transfer to a school that offers petroleum engineering bachelor's degree. If your grades are good, you might be able to qualify for some scholarship money.
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