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.
Your question is very broad. When you say "hire-able", it would depend on what you want to do. Many of the oil company research labs do employ folks with a PhD in physics. So, if you want to do research, then a PhD in physics would make you employable, depending on what you have specialized in within the field of physics and what the companies need right now. You would probably not be employable in today's current climate as an engineer because you might need too much training. When the price of oil is high and the supply of engineers was low, I have seen companies hire folks with technical degrees (applied math, physics) and train them to do the engineering work. Unfortunately, the price of oil is relatively low (it has collapsed 50% since June 2014) and the supply of engineers is high. As to your question on salary, it will increase in relation to the supply and demand situation as well as inflation. Petroleum engineers are typically among the highest paid engineering disciplines. You can find more information on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Please keep in mind that my area of expertise is USA based. Things can be quite different in other countries.
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As a Petroleum Engineer, if you focus on reservoir engineering and well log analysis, there is really no reason for you to travel to the field other than a few trips to get oriented early on. The other extreme is drilling engineering where you could be in the field a lot, depending on your company.
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I don't think it's that weird at all. There is a lot of work that requires familiarity with both petroleum engineering and environmental engineering. In order to get a permit to drill, for example, it is often necessary to conduct an environmental impact assessment. Someone with expertise in both areas can bring a lot of value to the process. When I was getting my Master's degree, there were folks with a wide variety of backgrounds in my program. Keep in mind, however, that I pursued that degree a few cycles ago. Right now, with the collapse in oil prices, I wouldn't recommend to anyone to pursue an advanced degree in petroleum engineering. There are massive layoffs at the service companies. Things will turn around eventually, but there's no way to predict when that will happen.
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It will depend on the particular university you plan to attend. However many of your undergraduate classes like physics, statics, dynamics, calculus will be similar to what the petroleum undergraduates will have had. One thing they will have had that you will need is some geology courses. You should be able to catch up pretty quick, though.
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The biggest advantage that a Petroleum Engineer has when it comes to internships is with independent oil and gas companies. They typically do not have as much in-house training as the integrated oil and gas companies do. At the integrated oil and gas companies, they are accustomed to providing training to graduates with degrees in mechanical, chemical etc. In today's economy, I advise students (in the USA, anyway) to shy away from Petroleum Engineering so that they have more options when they graduate.
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If you are asking me what software programs you need to purchase, it would depend greatly on what type of work you plan to do. Reservoir engineers use different programs than drilling engineers do. The best way to answer that question is to review the courses required by universities that offer a degree in petroleum engineering. Each of those courses will have it's own set of software that is required. Unfortunately, when I entered the industry, we didn't have many computer programs at all. Personal computers didn't even exist yet. In my current work as an environmental engineer, I don't use any computer programs other than WORD, EXCEL and POWERPOINT.
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Unless you are at the VERY top of your class when you graduate, you may have a hard time finding a job. In the US, we have shed nearly 150,000 jobs over the last 6 months due to the severe drop in the price of oil. Petroleum engineering graduates in the US are having a very difficult time finding a job. I would strongly recommend that you broaden your background by getting a degree in mechanical or civil engineering. Civil is a good fit with your geological background (I have my bachelor's in Civil). In this way you may be able to get a job outside the oil industry. It may pay less than petroleum engineers are making but you have a better chance of getting at least some kind of job. When the price of oil recovers (it will, but it's just a matter of time and it may take years), you can always jump back into the oil industry.
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