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.
It would depend on the company and whether you hired on as an expat. Often, US citizens who work overseas for a company based in the US get time off to come back to the US so I suppose it is possible to work the other way. Right now, however, the job market for all petroleum engineers us pretty difficult and engineers are happy just to get a job, let alone one with extra benefits.
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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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I suggest you read the posts at the beginning. I've already answered this question
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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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Aircraft Mechanic
Did you ever catch something critical right before a plane was about to take off?
Social Network Security Manager
Can you describe the average Internet troll?
Firefighter
What's the worst you've been burned in a fire?
I am a petroleum engineer, not a doctor or a mechanic. Suggest you consult the guys at CarTalk about making the smell go away and talk to your doctor about your health. While we know that benzene, found in gasoline, can cause cancer, it typically takes YEARS of exposure.
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When I started out, I spent about 25% of my time at the rig or out in the field. Currently, I'm gone about 10% of the time. I have had some jobs where I worked a regular 9 to 5 day in the office for months and months on end, so had a lot of time with my family. It really depends on the business cycle and what area of the business you specialize in. When I was a reservoir engineer, I almost never travelled. As a drilling engineer, expect to travel quite a bit more.
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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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