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.
If your grades and resume are pretty good, I would try to get on with one of the major oil companies (Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, etc.) and let them train you. Most of them will pay your tuitiom if you want to pursue a masters degree at night. You will find a LOT of engineers who work as petroleum engineers have a degree in ME, ChE, CE , etc. If your grades are not so great or this is not an option, then consider getting a Master's degree in PE from one of the top notch schools for PE like LSU, Penn State, Univ of TX or Texas A & M. The demand is so great for petroleum engineers right now that you can probably enter their program with a BS in Civil and with a few courses to catch up, get a Masters in PE. The scholarships in PE are pretty good right now. Also, the courses you have taken as a civil will probably be good prequisites for the PE masters courses. For example, I have a BS in Civil and a Masters in PE. When I took courses in geology and casing design, they were a cinch. Tulane University used to have a Masters in PE that was designed just for those with a bachelors in something other than PE. They closed that program in the 1990's but maybe other universities have a similar program. I would probably not pursue a bachelors in PE (I think you would be bored) nor an online degree (I don't think they have credibility yet).
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I think you are confusing profits with return on investment. Yes, oil companies have made a lot of profit in sheer # of dollars but if you look at the capital employed, the rate of return is nowhere near what Apple or Microsoft makes. The other thing to take into account is that oil companies don't control the lion's share of oil and gas reserves any more. The nationalized oil companies in places like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Venezuela control most of the reserves and impact the price of oil and gas.
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I am a petroleum engineer, not a refinery engineer. I suggest you check out this website and decide for yourself: http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/consumer_tips/regular_vs_premium.html
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Before switching majors, I would see if you can fix the situation. if you switch majors, you might lose a lot of ground. If your professors are decent and your program is accredited, I would work with some other students and approach your engineering dean and/or career placement with some proposed solutions. Do you have a student section of SPE? If not, consider chartering one; see if you can get local professionals to come give lectures and help with resumes, interviewing and finding internships; ; SPE might be able to connect you with a retired petroleum engineer who lives in your area that would be willing to help; consider some joint activities with geology majors; if you are successful, you will have an impressive achievement for your résumé. Future employers want to see that you take on a tough problem, show some creativity and solve it. It is about more than just mastering the technical topics And getting good grades in your courses. It is about showing that you can work with others and improve things. Best of luck to you.
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That's a very good question. It really depends on the individual company. Some companies give their experienced technicians a fair amount of autonomy and authority and they travel to the field. At one company, for example, it was a technician, not an engineer who provided a lot of support for completions and workovers. He designed and ordered all the components of the gas lift system and then went to the field to ensure the installation went as planned. During busy times they might work 50 or 60 hours weeks and typically, they are salaried (translation = no overtime pay but also more flexibility to take personal time off).
I have seen other companies and departments where the technicians do a lot of repetitious, routine tasks but work a 40 hour week and never go to the field. They function a bit more like an administrative assistant than a true "technician". To be fair, some of these technicians did not have college degrees, maybe high school plus just a year or two of community college. If you are pursuing a career as a technician / technologist, be sure to ask companies you are interviewing with for their expectatations and typical career path.
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Chemical Engineering is going to focus on understanding chemical reactions used in industrial processes, how to optimize them, predict outcomes, understand potential hazards, etc. Petroleum engineering will cover geology, well construction, estimating reserves, economics, some chemical reaction / surface facility design (but in less detail than in chemical engineering) and some tranportation/logistics. Personally, I would recommend chemical engineering because it makes you appealing to a broader selection of jobs and companies. However, if you KNOW you want to be in the Upstream Oil and Gas business OR if you know you want to go on to get a law degree and practice oil and gas law, then I would recommend Petroleum Engineering. Starting salaries for Petroleum Engineers is hovering near the six figure mark right now, but Chemical Engineers are not very far behind. After a few years on the job, that tends to even out and folks are paid based on their contributions not their degree. Our business is cyclic and always has been. The cycle is favorable right now BUT when there is a downturn, Petroleum Engineers are not in demand and the degree is not as favorable. Upstream Oil and Gas companies will always want to hire and train chemical engineers but the reverse is not true - Chemical companies rarely want to hire and train Petroleum Engineers. The ideal situation would be to get a chemical engineering degree and do internships at an Oil and Gas company to make sure this is the profession you want to pursue.
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Mathematics is about so much more than "number crunching". Computers do more than just add lots of numbers. Mathematics is about solving problems and building models that simulate natural phenomena. Engineers either build those mathematical models OR they have to study mathematics and computer science to be able to understand whether the models they use are valid for the problem they are attempting to solve. if you want to delve deeper, I recommend a fascinating book called, " Is God a mathematician?". You can find it Amazon or most large bookstores.
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