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.
See the post below re. Family time. Getting the degree is hard work but if you enjoy the subjects it is rewarding.
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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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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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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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It all depends on your particular job. A rig superintendent spends most of their time at the rig. A drilling enigineer might spend up to 50% of their time at the rig, especially early in their career. A reservoir engineer goes to the fiel / rig fairly rarely. Maybe a few times per year oe maybe never if the location is remote or if they are working on a prospect that might not get developed for 5 years.
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here's the bottom line, if you have stellar grades and can get hired on with a major oil company and/or can do several internships with a major oil company doing reservoir work, then go for the ME since you enjoy that more. The major oil companies will give you the training to be a reservoir engineer that you would have gotten in the PE degree. If your grades are average, then go for the PE degree because you are more likely to end up at a small independent oil company that us not going to have an extensive training program in reservoir engineering.
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At the end of the day, what really matters is how much value you add to a company's profits. For me, the 3 keys to success are to show that you can work well with others, deliver on your commitments and exceed expectations. First impressions are a key factor. In my personal experience, folks with field experience who can master those 3 keys quickly can do exceedingly well. I do tend to agree that after 2 or 3 years the benefit of wireline experience may start to plateau, for don't forget that you are going to be starting ot with an advantage. As long as you can outpace your peers, you'll do well. Remember that a career is a marathon, not a sprint, but to win, you've definitely got to start strong. Best of luck to you.
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