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's not quite that simple but if there is an oil and gas processing site that is flaring gas that has H2S in it, there is a hazard if the flare goes out. However, a properly designed system has an alarm that immediately alerts the operator if the flare goes out and should be set up to shut in the wells to avoid allowing uncombusted natural gas and H2S to exit the flare for an extended period of time. Also, there should be an H2S detector at the site that would either sound an alarm or display flashing lights to warn those in the area that H2S has been detected. This would allow the operators to don breathing gear before entering the site to address the situation.
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I would go to the engineering toolbox.com to get info about Baume’s scale. It is essentially a density measurement. Generally heavy crude has a high density and is less valuable than lower density crudes which are more easily refined into gasoline, jet fuel and kerosene. Keep in mind technology has evolved substantially since 1922. It really depends on what you want to work this information and where this oil was discovered. Every reservoir is quite different, so crude oil quality varies widely.
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Great question!
When I first started working, I was really surprised by all the routine paperwork I had to do: checking invoices to see if the amount charged matched the quoted price, filling out expense accounts, preparing paper and electronic files to be stored, reviewing old files to see if they could be deleted, and other things that I thought secretaries or accountants would do. However, it turns out that only I had the knowledge or information to do things correctly. Many engineers do not like what we called in the "old days" PAPERWORK. However, I really did appreciate that my predecessors generally paid good attention to it because reviewing data from prior engineering projects helped me to avoid mistakes.
Another part of my job that was a big surprise to me was how much attention I had to pay to the economics of a project and trying to optimize it. I had the notion that the goal was to find the very best engineering solution. But sometimes, the most economical solution over the long haul is not the technically best solution. As one my first bosses said to me "Don't let the perfect get in the way of good enough".
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Ok. Fair point. I don't really know enough about Trump's or Biden's policies to comment in detail. I'm not even sure Trump HAS an environmental policy except to roll back regulations and dismantle the EPA. He certainly does not seem anxious to give OSHA or MSHA (Mining) the kind of funding they need to do their jobs. Biden is likely to be more liberal on this but to get corporate support, he may not be very vocal about this. I think the election will focus on issues related to the pandemic and BLM.
Having worked for a large, integrated oil company, you might be surprised to learn that I personally support stringent environmental and safety regulations and support funding our regulatory agencies to conduct thorough and frequent inspections. Most large companies have internal policies that often exceed regulatory standards, so it is actually a competitive advantage for them to support rigorous regulations. However, many do not take that position, at least in public. The position often was, "Leave us alone. We can regulate ourselves". While some of the big companies CAN do this, the ones that don't make it bad for everyone - the public, their competitors, the environment and their employees. While I support stringent safety & environmental regulations, I also think we should give industry a bit of flexibility on how to achieve the end results, so long as it is done ethically and responsibly. I'm proud to say I did work on several regulations where we convinced regulators that there were more economic ways to achieve the same pollution or safety standard.
When it comes to energy policy (e.g. - the price of oil and gas, sanctions, etc.), we have to face the facts that it is a stacked deck. Saudi and OPEC still control a fair amount of the world's cheap oil. That won't last forever, but we are stuck with it for likely the next 10 to 20 years, at least. Unless we are willing to start a war (and sadly, this has happened before), we will continue to be dominated by OPEC and Russia.
I do support more sustainable energy solutions and I think engineers will continue to innovate and create cost effective solutions. That said, I think the market is mainly for home use and some industrial electricity needs. I don't see wind or solar replacing transportation fuels for a long, long time. It is just very hard to replace something like jet fuel in terms of BTUs/gallon. So, I think fossil fuels will have a place in our world for a long time to come.
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What lessons can you share about past and present start-ups you've worked with?
During my career, I did make some design errors, but fortunately, it was early in my career at a time when my work was always being checked by supervisors or mentors. They were always very good about explaining the proper way to do things and never condescending. I was fortunate to work in a culture where there literally were "no stupid questions" and I was always treated with respect on technical issues. I only wish every engineer could have that type of career!
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You are most welcome and it was a delight to talk with you. Best of luck in your academic endeavors and your career.
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I am not an economist, BUT this is an unprecedented crisis with the combination of Covid19 + the OPEC disagreements. We will need oil and gas for the foreseeable future, but the competition for volume will continue to be fierce, in my opinion, driving prices down for the long term. I'm not sure if the industry will "thrive" again for a very long time. There is a lot of talk about layoffs at the major oil companies. I predict that many of the small independent oil companies will either declare bankruptcy or be bought up by the majors at deeply discounted prices. If you are pursuing a graduate degree in Petroleum Engineering, I would IMMEDIATELY change course to a degree that is more broad, such as Mechanical or Chemical. The demand for someone with an undergraduate PE degree is going to be low to non-existent and, for a graduate degree, even worse. If you have read my previous postings, you will see that I am NOT a fan of getting a PE degree. It is just too narrow. I was very lucky to start in the oil business in 1981 with peak demand. Somehow, I survived 38 years of ups and downs, but likely it was because I was very flexible and willing to move into other departments, such as Safety & Environmental and in other business lines, such as Refining. Unfortunately, very few companies that are not in the oil industry will be interested in hiring someone with e degree in Petroleum. It is just too narrow.Best of luck to you.
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