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.
Sorry, but I don't answer technical questions like that. The focus of this site is on what it's like to work in my profession.
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I STRONGLY encourage you to begin educating yourself on the current market by reading the newspaper and trade magazines, such as the Journal of Petroleum Technology. The market for petroleum engineers is very cyclical and currently we are in a down cycle. Many petroleum engineering graduates in 2016 could not find jobs. Many oil companies have been laying off employees (just read the Houston Chronicle). This is not a new trend and this is the 4th down cycle in my career. When times are good, petroleum engineers command the TOP salaries, but when times are bad, they can't get a job at all. Although I work as a petroleum engineer, I have always encouraged students to pursue a broader degree, such as civl, mechanical or chemical. When times are good, energy companies hire all kinds of degrees and provide on the job training. The slight edge that a BS in Petroleum Engineering provides during good times, doesn't endure for more than a few years. Engineers with other degrees catch up quickly. If you DO decide to stick with Petroleum engineering, it is vital to be at the very TOP of your class, get good internships and do a LOT of networking - Join SPE and attend national conventions, and be prepared to go to graduate school if you can't get a job. I don't mean to be so negative - I'm just trying to tell you what's really happening right now (December 2016). Things could change BUT this is your career so you have to do some soul searching to understand how much risk you can live with.
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See my previous post. It is very difficult to get a job ANYWHERE right now. Overseas assignments do exist but most employers want someone with experience. If you are interested in Italy, do some research on ENI. They have the largest presence in Italy and air is an Italian based company.
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You don't say where you live. Regulations vary widely. I suggest you contact the local regulatory agency and/or your elected officials (mayor, representative, senator, councilman ,etc). Their offices routinely assist with questions like this.
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CBP Officer
What are the telltale signs you look to indicate someone's lying?
Peace Corps Volunteer
Are Peace Corps volunteers just a bunch of "hippie freaks?"
Radio program/music director
Do radio stations have to pay royalties to artists to play their songs?
You need to do some basic research. There is no such thing as a "fracking plant". In the oil and gas industry, fracking (or hydraulic fracturing which is the technical name) is an operation conducted on an individual well. If you are asking whether methane leaks from an individual oil or gas well can be controlled in a productive manner, the answer is not only yes but it IS. Methane is one of the products we produce and sell. It would be make absolutely no sense to throw this product away by allowing to leak. That is not only economically foolish, but it is dangerous as methane is explosive. A massive leak of methane from an oil or gas well is promptly addressed by any oil and gas operator who knows what they are doing.
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Great question. I think it really depends on what challenges you the most. Calculus can be somewhat abstract. Physics a bit less until you get into quantum physics. It is important to master the basic concepts in those courses, however, because you will be applying them in your upper level engineering courses. Some of your petroleum engineering courses will be more analytical (like reservoir modeling) while others will be a more interpretive (like geology courses). The thing they will have in common, however, is that, just like calculus and physics, they will be mainly oriented towards learning a concept and then solving problems on homework sets and on tests. If you like doing that, you will do well.. As a civil engineering undergraduate and a Petroleum engineering Masters student, I have to say that I found my civil courses to be a bit more concrete (no pun intended) because you could see and feel the results. You can take a steel beam into a lab and stretch until it fails. With petroleum engineering, especially the downhole aspects, you never know for sure exactly what is going on, so there's a bit more "art" to it. For example, you drill a well, but its difficult to fully inspect it once it is completed. You produce a reservoir but you will never know exactly how much oil you left behind in the reservoir when the last well dies.
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Drilling engineers who are willing to rotate (28 days on and 28 days off) to risky or remote locations, like Africa, generally make the highest salaries but it is also a tough life.
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