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Career Description

Devise methods to improve oil and gas extraction and production and determine the need for new or modified tool designs. Oversee drilling and offer technical advice.

What Job Titles Petroleum Engineers Might Have

• Drilling Engineer
• Petroleum Engineer
• Petroleum Production Engineer
• Reservoir Engineer

What Petroleum Engineers Do

• Assess costs and estimate the production capabilities and economic value of oil and gas wells, to evaluate the economic viability of potential drilling sites.
• Develop plans for oil and gas field drilling, and for product recovery and treatment.
• Direct and monitor the completion and evaluation of wells, well testing, or well surveys.
• Analyze data to recommend placement of wells and supplementary processes to enhance production.
• Monitor production rates, and plan rework processes to improve production.
• Interpret drilling and testing information for personnel.
• Specify and supervise well modification and stimulation programs to maximize oil and gas recovery.
• Assist engineering and other personnel to solve operating problems.
• Confer with scientific, engineering, and technical personnel to resolve design, research, and testing problems.
• Coordinate the installation, maintenance, and operation of mining and oil field equipment.
• Maintain records of drilling and production operations.
• Write technical reports for engineering and management personnel.
• Assign work to staff to obtain maximum utilization of personnel.
• Evaluate findings to develop, design, or test equipment or processes.
• Simulate reservoir performance for different recovery techniques, using computer models.
• Design and implement environmental controls on oil and gas operations.
• Coordinate activities of workers engaged in research, planning, and development.
• Take samples to assess the amount and quality of oil, the depth at which resources lie, and the equipment needed to properly extract them.
• Supervise the removal of drilling equipment, the removal of any waste, and the safe return of land to structural stability when wells or pockets are exhausted.
• Inspect oil and gas wells to determine that installations are completed.
• Conduct engineering research experiments to improve or modify mining and oil machinery and operations.

What Petroleum Engineers Should Be Good At

• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).

What Petroleum Engineers Should Be Interested In

• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

What Petroleum Engineers Need to Learn

• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
• Chemistry - Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.