<p>Hello,</p>
<p>Energy, particularly oil, has always fascinated me. As thus, I sort of have wanted to major in petroleum engineering in college.</p>
<p>However, I don't think petroleum engineering is too viable. Am I correct in my thinking?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Your absolutely incorrect.</p>
<p>Petroleum is the largest and most profitable industry in the world.
If you look at the most profitable companies in the top 100 hundred, most of them are petroleum companies.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is one of the few disciplines that has consistantly had more positions available than graduates. This has been the case since the late 1960s and early 1970s. In about 5 years or so there will be a huge amount of positions available because the elderly are going to be retiring.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is the highest paying of any engineering discipline.
Oil companies give you excellent benefits. (85,000 USD)
Petroleum engineers get to work for 3 weeks (field) and 3 weeks off(vacation). That is usually the cycle they follow.</p>
<p>Petroleum isn’t running out for at least 50 years. That is based on current estimates. But with huge potential in the Arctic areas that are unexplored there maybe more than 100 years until Petroleum runs out.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is still growing very fast. Especially with emerging economic engines such as China, India that have growing energy needs. Approximately 18% growth.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering normally deals with the upstream sector of the Oil/Gas industry.
This sector is involved with the exploration, estimation of oil reserves and extraction of oil. You should have an interesting in Geology, Geophysics, Physics, Fluids, and Mathematics and some other topics.</p>
<p>It is an excellent discipline to be in.
I am currently studying as once. It is also an incredibly interesting discipline.
I highly recommend pursuing this field if that is your wish.
Don’t let some notion hold you back and don’t let others negative view of the industry hold you back from what you really want to do.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is not piece of cake. It is tough and those 3 weeks that you will be on shift will be tough. But the satisfaction you get from being able to directly work with helping to extract the resource that has shaped our modern world is great.</p>
<p>But then those 3 weeks of vacation allow you to pursue other interests or just relax.
This is what my professor has told me who worked in the petroleum industry for decades.</p>
<p>Good colleges to look into:</p>
<p>Texas A&M
Colorado School of Mines
Austin Texas
Alaska Fairbanks</p>
<p>Petroleum engineers must work in tough climate conditions though but its a real adventure.</p>
<p>You could find yourself on different continents every few years!
Its a job for the explorer!</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>If you have anymore questions just ask.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not true. Top 10, yes. Top 100? Not even close.</p>
<p>But I agree with you in that Petroleum Engineering is far from dead. It does have a finite lifespan, but like you said, it is at least 50 years from being a useless career.</p>
<p>My main concern is with the massive shift towards looking for alternative fuels due to atmospheric concerns. I’m concerned that the demand for petroleum engineers will plummet and I’ll have a hard time finding a job.</p>
<p>Not happening anytime soon. The world economy runs on hydrocarbons and any abrupt switch will mean global economic catastrophe. Just look at the difficulty of enacting cap-n-trade in the US or how the Copenhagen climate talks fell apart. No particular country is willing to cut its economy by 10% or more unless other countries do the same.</p>
<p>Alternative fuels are still a “pipe dream.” Ethanol is not viable because a) you spend more energy producing ethanol than what you get from it and b) ethanol production cuts into food production. Hydrogen takes more energy to produce and there are still storage concerns. Biofuels from algae, cooking oil, and other sources are still not scalable to cost-effective levels. Electric cars? We need more research in advanced batteries and the electric grid/infrastructure is not advanced enough to handle the increased load (not to mention, if most of the plants are coal plants you end up producing more pollution).</p>
<p>If anything, petroleum engineers will see lots of growth in the coming decades. Oil is increasingly coming from non-traditional places like the bottom of the ocean, tar sands, or shale rocks. I expect PetEs to make more $$ in the coming 2 decades.</p>
<p>Oh, forgot to mention, the companies most likely to enter the alternative energy race in strong positions are the petroleum companies. They already have the re$ource$ to invest into these emerging markets. Just take a look at their websites and their projects concerning alternative energy sources.</p>
<p>I second the thing about petroleum companies leading the “green energy” push. They have to, because if they don’t they will be left out in the rain whenever the time eventually does come that hydrocarbons are no longer needed. That said, petroleum engineers are not very useful when it comes to the green energy side of things. Most of the people the oil companies have working in those areas are going to be other types of engineers and scientists.</p>
<p>However, even if someone makes a breakthrough, it would take years to wean the world off of petrochemicals. Not even nuclear fusion would instantly kill the petroleum industry, and that would easily be the thing that would kill it the fastest. It still isn’t anywhere close to being a viable source of power though.</p>
<p>Well, doesn’t hydrocarbons cover natural gas? I was under the impression that natural gas is also a big booming green energy area.</p>
<p>Would you say a Chemical Engineering BS –> Petroleum Engineering MS/PhD is feasible? Or are they too unrelated. I understand that a BS in ME provides for a better foundation to pursue PE, but I don’t want to major in ME.</p>
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<p>Natural gas is more of a stopgap. It is cleaner than oil, but it still isn’t clean. Ultimately we would want everything to run on non-hydrocarbon power sources.</p>
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<p>From what I have gathered (and I am by no means an expert, someone else will have to confirm/deny) an M.S. isn’t that useful in Petroleum Engineering and a Ph.D. is less useful.</p>
<p>I think the # of PetE jobs is shrinking because of new technology etc. but there has always been a shortage of workers. I once heard that there were nine petroleum engineering job openings for every qualified applicant. Strange industry…</p>
<p>@ Engineerhead — about a Degree in Chemical engineering and then Masters in Petroleum engineering.</p>
<p>That not be recommended. This is because first of all a masters in petroleum engineering isn’t that much more useful in the industry than a BS.</p>
<p>Secondly chemical engineering is NOT related to petroleum engineering. They deal with completely different sectors of the petroleum industry.</p>
<p>Upstream = Petroleum engineering. These guys deal with the exploration, extraction and estimation of oil reserves. A lot of Geology, Geophysics, fluid behavior.</p>
<p>Downstream = Chemical engineers. These guys deal with the Refining of crude oil into useful products such as plastics & gasoline. A lot of chemistry, thermodynamics.</p>
<p>If you want to go into the upstream side then get a BS in Petro Engineering.</p>
<p>If you want to work with designing refineries for crude oil then get a BS in Chemical engineering or Petrochemical engineering.</p>
<p>But getting both wouldn’t help you with either.</p>
<p>I have a question concerning petroleum engineering and your location.</p>
<p>If you currently live in a place like California, where not much mining is done and the only schools that offer petroleum engineering as a major is Stanford and USC. Where do you recommend to go to school for this major? And also, what is the job outlook if you live in California as opposed to living in Texas or Alaska ( sorry if i’m stereotyping LOL ). But is it easy to find a job no matter where you live?</p>
<p>One more question, is it better to have a bachelors degree or is a masters degree really needed?</p>
<p>Personally I’m against oil and would have a moral conflict if I majored in petroleum engineering, but there’s no doubt that it’s still viable for several decades (enough that you probably won’t be affected in terms of your “working lifespan”).</p>
<p>Yeah we’re not getting off it any time soon. How can you be against oil? Are you against energy?</p>
<p>If your against fossil fuels then why are you still posting on this thread?</p>
<p>The electricity that you need to power your computer comes from fossil fuels.
The plastic your computer is made of comes from fossil fuels.</p>
<p>Those that are truly against fossil fuels and then stop relying on fossil fuels I respect.</p>
<p>But those that are against fossil fuels and still continue to rely on fossil fuels heavily I don’t.</p>
<p>Whether you like it or not fossil fuels have helped to create the modern world we live in today.</p>
<p>I also believe we need to invest in alternative energies and infrastructure heavily. But completely disregarding fossil fuels is not right either.</p>
<p>Yes well said</p>
<p>It is a bit sad what Fossil Fuel is doing to Mother Earth =( We must discipline him soon, before he dies because he’s almost out.</p>
<p>Well that’s a different argument. But to say you’re against oil is like saying you’re against energy in my opinion.</p>
<p>I did my BEng in Mechanical Engineering in the UK. I wanted to do my bachelor’s in petroleum engineering in the US but I was convinced that alternative energy would replace it (my fault for buying into the media hype and not doing my own research). As it turns out alternative energy should really be called supplementary energy. This is what I learnt when I studied IC Engines and Energy Systems as an undergad. This commencement address should also ease your fears about the oil & gas industry being replaceed anytime soon:
[Now</a> THAT’S a commencement speech | Watts Up With That?](<a href=“http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/14/now-thats-a-commencement-speech/]Now”>http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/14/now-thats-a-commencement-speech/)</p>
<p>For me its a bit late so I am enrolling in an MS program in the US this fall (if I get my F-1 student visa anyway). Since you are applying for a bachelor’s degree I urge you to follow you dream and apply for petroleum engineering NOW and not after wasting four or five years of your life on a bachelor’s your’e not particularly interested in.</p>