Petroleum engineering
- Thread starter flibbage0
- Start date
I dont know any petroleum engineers but I know a lot of chemical engineers, who work in the extraction and refining of oil and petroleum based products. IIRC theres a few of them on OCUK who will probably be of more use than me. Jobs can vary massively so your questions cant be answered specifically. The money and travelling is there if you want it, plenty of jobs available to people with the right qualifications and experience.
Ive only worked in the power generation and oil and gas fields so cant offer a wide insight, however there is a lot of money to be made in O&G if you are a good engineer and/or prepared to work in some harsh environments away from home. If youre going the university route, chemical/mechanical/materials/structural engineering is a good place to start if you want to get into O&G. Its good to go for a sandwich degree in one of these fields as it gives you a head start against other graduates, plus an MEng is desirable (sometimes necessary) to the big recruiters in O&G.
my degree isn't MEng so got no real chance?
Tbh, Meng/Beng or hnc/hnd doesn't mean a lot from my lovely experiance (mainly steelworks/silicon chemical plant) its more about experiance, I know a couple of engineers in charge of massive departments with hundreds of guys underneath them and all they have is a hnc to there name.
Best bet is to get the experiance with any company you can then hit the big payers. Experiance allways seems to open doors tbh
my degree isn't MEng so got no real chance?
Aim for an MSc then.
Having said that try and get a job in the sector you want first and if you can't then look at it.
OP it will all depend on what you want to do, Petroleum engineering is a wide discipline and depending on what you aim for and what sort of company you work for it can be 9-5 or 12 hour shifts with weeks off.
Money will be good if you have the qualifications and experience (which may be an MSc or MEng as suggested). For example a reservoir engineer could come from either the Geoscience side (BSc in Geology) or the engineering side (B/MEng in Engineering).
Salary wise I'm guessing it's around the same as petroleum geologists which can range from around £25-£35k depending on whether you work for a consultancy (lower paid) or an operator (That is graduate salary). If you end up working offshore or abroad then the pay could well be higher.
I worked as a reservoir engineer and found the work painfully boring. It was basically geology with a bit of maths. Spent my days building simulation models on petrel and trying to get different production scenarios for various field properties. Was horrifically boring and inaccurate too, may I add. I failed to see how my Mech Eng degree related at all to the subject. Drilling, on the other hand, really interested me.
Another one of your career questions? What are you doing atm flibbage, I forgot.
There is an awful lot of money in the oil, though there is quite a lot of very boring work. That being said, I really wish that I could get into it but I can't figure out an 'in' at the minute which is very irritating.
There is an awful lot of money in the oil, though there is quite a lot of very boring work. That being said, I really wish that I could get into it but I can't figure out an 'in' at the minute which is very irritating.
What do you do at the moment/what qualifications do you have Ahleckz?
EDIT: I think one of the difficult things about getting into the Oil Industry is that as a small industry it is still very much a case of who you know/where you went to uni. If you don't know the right people (and for a graduate that generally means what uni you went to) it seems quite difficult to get a decent job in it. At least that is essentialy what I've come to the conclusion of.
EDIT: I think one of the difficult things about getting into the Oil Industry is that as a small industry it is still very much a case of who you know/where you went to uni. If you don't know the right people (and for a graduate that generally means what uni you went to) it seems quite difficult to get a decent job in it. At least that is essentialy what I've come to the conclusion of.
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Doing a levels at the moment, not sure what career path I want to take, something chemistry related but not sure what degree.
Soldato
I'm glad you mentioned this!
I was considering trying to move into reservoir engineering but I wasn't sure how interesting it would be - having read up a bit about it, it does seem to involve large amount of simulation/modelling.
Was it just you that found it boring or do most reservoir engineers find this? I'm guessing if you like building simulation models you'd probably love it....otherwise it's probably a tad dull.
Soldato
Just a word of warning, but chemical engineering doesn't really involve much chemistry per say. Lots of reaction engineering, thermodynamic, fluid mechanics but little chemistry unless you specialise it in.
I'm biased, but I'd do Chem Eng over Chemistry any day. Probably because I prefer the applied science side that engineering leads to. I'd also argue that the career opportunities are more varied a chemical engineering degree can lead to all sorts of engineering roles that specialise in different areas and industries.
I've managed to get into oil & gas, not as an engineer in the traditional sense but doing completions work for O&G projects. I'm part systems manager, part developer for the software that powers the completions side of the project.
As people have said it does seem to be who you know, I fell into this when I was looking for a job last time around, a friend knew a guy who was looking for some support with the software side of things and I ended up being sent out to Texas for 6 months running the system.
A lot of the engineers are old blokes, 50-60 mostly, one guy is 74! Also the money that engineers are on is obscene compared to almost anything else I know of bar a private doctor or dentist, with long hours 70+ a week 7 days for 6 weeks at a time but some guys are on £120 p/h
I do know that some of the guys get work with agents but they won't take new guys without experience. Most work is found through the old boy network, who you worked on other jobs with etc.
To get started you would need find a company who is accepting staff and do a few years on jobs at a normal rate of pay before you could leave and go contract like most of the lads here are.
There can be a lot of travel, but there are also jobs onShore, still plenty of plants need operators etc. I know a process op, again good money (35K for a 25 y/o with a HND) but he does shifts 6 days on 4 off I *think*. I don't get to see him that often but he does enjoy his time off.
If you are young, single and manage to get started early I think it could be a great career but its tough if you have kids and are married, I certainly wasn't expecting to be away this long and its hard on family / friends. For me the money doesn't really make it worth it.
As people have said it does seem to be who you know, I fell into this when I was looking for a job last time around, a friend knew a guy who was looking for some support with the software side of things and I ended up being sent out to Texas for 6 months running the system.
A lot of the engineers are old blokes, 50-60 mostly, one guy is 74! Also the money that engineers are on is obscene compared to almost anything else I know of bar a private doctor or dentist, with long hours 70+ a week 7 days for 6 weeks at a time but some guys are on £120 p/h
I do know that some of the guys get work with agents but they won't take new guys without experience. Most work is found through the old boy network, who you worked on other jobs with etc.
To get started you would need find a company who is accepting staff and do a few years on jobs at a normal rate of pay before you could leave and go contract like most of the lads here are.
There can be a lot of travel, but there are also jobs onShore, still plenty of plants need operators etc. I know a process op, again good money (35K for a 25 y/o with a HND) but he does shifts 6 days on 4 off I *think*. I don't get to see him that often but he does enjoy his time off.
If you are young, single and manage to get started early I think it could be a great career but its tough if you have kids and are married, I certainly wasn't expecting to be away this long and its hard on family / friends. For me the money doesn't really make it worth it.
I always thought flibbage0 was a slightly senile 60+ year old
Haha, I do look at my posts and my behaviour sometimes and think I'm turning into an old man.
I've got a law degree. I don't want to do anything law related though. Some sort of sales/buying is where I want to go, but not sure how best to do it. If I had the engineering background I would be able to get a foot in the door through some contacts but my degree is effectively useless for that sector.
This is a very good post and I thank you for writing this up.
I also heard that its good to do when young but once you're married and have kids it can become tedious.
Will try to keep my options open as possible, shame that you don't get much time to see family+friends.
I just saw a vacancy for senior petroleum engineer, it is contract work so 6-12 months.
£700-£850 per day
That works out at £168-£204k a year.
However money isn't everything.