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.
I don't get angry because I understand how small the profit margin is on gasoline and I do have a good appreciation for what it costs to discover and develop new reserves. Crude oil is a commodity like every other commodity subject to the laws of supply and demand.
Share Answer: 
Great question. First thing every morning, I review the operations reports from the previous 24 hours to see whether we have had any spills (hopefully not) or any close calls. There are usually a couple of close calls or some very small spills (a burst hydraulic hose for example) that did not make it to the soil or water but was captured in a drip pan or other containment. I review the learnings and then prepare the report to be shared with all of our units worldwide so they can learn from it. This will take maybe an hour every day. I typically have one or two meetings a day with various operations units where I spend time understanding their challenges or reviewing their successes. A lot of my job involves facilitating networking among our different operating groups. My long history with the company plus having worked in several different areas allows me to help folks solve their problems faster. Once a week or so, I spend a couple of hours with one my technicians reviewing various trends in environmental data from our units, such as number and volume of spills (or close calls), air emissions trends, water consumption, waste generation and the like. We look for trends that are telling us if we are headed on the right track or if we need to take some action. Depending on the time of year, I might spend several hours a day reviewing or preparing presentations and/or speeches on our environmental goals or performance. About once a week I spend an hour or so with one of the young women engineers in our company to mentor them on technical or career development issues. I actually think that one of the most valuable things I can do for the company is to push back on requests, especially from other business units or HQ to gather more data and impose new requirements on the operating units. At a very large company, it is very easy to get caught up in the bureaucracy and hard to remember that every new internal requirement we impose costs money. The older I get, the more I think like a shareholder instead of an employee and I ask "WHY?". Why do we need to collect this data? What are we going to do with it? Is there something we can stop doing? I try to do this via phone calls and meetings and NOT by just sending out an e-mail. It's easy to just be agreeable and build more bureaucracy but I feel it is important to try to add value. In this particular job, I only travel about 10% of the time. In my previous job, I conducted environmental and safety assessments and spent about 40% of my time travelling. I managed the group and so was able to pick and choose where I wanted to go and when so long as I spent time visiting all the various regions and business lines.
Share Answer: 
There is a higher percentage of women engineers now than when I started 30 years ago, but it is still male dominated as are most engineering fields. I have never felt disadvantaged likely due to the fact that I entered the industry in the days just after the Arab Oil embargo when crude oil prices were high and projected to continue to climb. Oil companies were competing vigorously for engineers, men or women. Also, I was fortunate in that many of the rig superintendents I worked with were my dad's age and had daughters going into the industry. So, if anything, for me it was reverse discrimination when I went to the rigs. The guys had to sleep with the roughnecks, but I typically got my own room. I have noticed some subtle discrimination, however. For example, I notice that at meetings the men often interrupt each other and never get called on it. However, if I interrupt someone, I am chided to be patient and "wait my turn". As with all engineering fields, women engineers do struggle with the on ramping and off ramping if they significant time off (i.e. years) to raise kids. This does not seem to be as big an issue for doctors and lawyers. Also, we still need to make more progress in offering part time work to women engineers.
Share Answer: 
A lot has been written about "Peak oil" and I could not begin to do the subject justice in this space. Respected publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have written some good pieces. I would say that I and most of my colleagues don't subscribe to the peak oil theory. The amount of reserves available in just the oil sands in northern Canada alone is tremendous.
Share Answer: 
Border Patrol Agent
How easy is it to forge a US passport?
Parcel Delivery Mailman
Does labeling a package "fragile" actually lead to you handling it with more care?
Antiques Dealer
Do you think today's "stuff" will one day be collected as valuable antiques?
Absolutely! The loss of eleven precious lives is heartbreaking. It does bother me that people got more upset over the oil spilled than over the lives lost. The very first time I went to a rig, I will never forget how the superintendent, a 30 year veteran took me aside and said "Darling, I just want you to know that you can shut down this rig at ANY time." "What do I know?" I said. "I just started here". He said, "I don't care. If you feel concerned at any point, you just tell us to stop. We all want to go home just the way we came to work" I will never forget that man, who became like a second father to me. I'm also happy to say that he was the rule and not the exception. I have shut down the job many times over my career and have never once gotten in trouble for that. All companies in all industries need to empower their employees and contractors to speak up. From the technical articles I have read, the mistakes made at Macondo were very basic and 100% preventable.
Share Answer: 
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.
Share Answer: 
I would say that it is not extremely common as it is not the place for everybody. However, it is very common for engineers and geologists to start with a large company, get their training and then leave for smaller companies that can't afford to run their own training programs OR they leave to start their own business. The big money (and big risk) is running your own company. You have to get funding but if you have just one big success, you can become very wealthy. I'm a bit risk averse which is why I never took the plunge to go out on my own, plus I liked the environmental side of the business better than the frontline operations. Environmental work is a bit grueling at a consulting firm but at a large company it is a bit more of 9 to 5 job which was good for me and my kids as they were growing up. Also, I was attracted to the fact that, at a large company, there would likely be opportunities to work in different areas of the business without having to change companies and lose seniority and/or benefits. Also, if you don't like your boss, he/she will eventually get transferred (or you will). At a small company, you could get stuck with a bad boss or bad work group for decades.
Share Answer: 
-OR-
Login with Facebook (max 20 characters - letters, numbers, and underscores only. Note that your username is private, and you have the option to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)
(A valid e-mail address is required. Your e-mail will not be shared with anyone.)
(min 5 characters)
By checking this box, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to Jobstr.com’s Terms and Privacy Policy.
-OR-
Register with Facebook(Don't worry: you'll be able to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)
Browse Jobs
Host a Q&A
Search
Submit Your Question
Host a Q&A
