<p>Well, in PE you basically live to do chemistry problems, so you might want to readjust your options. To answer you first question, many American companies send fresh graduates overseas to the fertile crest for highly paid jobs (a family friend made 80k per year as a fresh graduate in PE in kuwait)</p>
<p>My current GPA is 3.3, and I can force myself into liking chemistry for the greater benefit, which is to have a solid future in this career. </p>
<p>So is it safe to say that I will easily be able to get a high paying job after getting my degree from UH in PE with 3.0 or higher GPA, despite the fact that oil companies are only hiring “cream of the crop” PEs from A&M?</p>
<p>The reason I was considering UH is because my cousin lives in Houston, living at her house will save me the cost of housing @ UH. Which other universities should I consider for this major and is it hard to get into UH?</p>
<p>go to youtube and find out what professional energy speakers have to say about the industry’s future.i find it somewhat better than listening to random strangers saying it will last forever.many speakers predict peak oil by 2020.
if you want some info on the increasing number of people getting into this relatively small field,just contact some universities and you’ll find out yourself.
wait,you already know that when you say “cream of the crop”.</p>
<p>PE primarily uses fluid mechanics, since oil is a fluid. These involve partial differential, flow equations, and conservation of mass.</p>
<p>PE also uses watered down (nothing deep) geology, chemistry, economics, and even some computer programming (in Reservoir Simulation).</p>
<p>I want to be a Petroleum engineer also but I live in CA and there are no universities that offer it. I do not no the slightest thing about the field but that it is a branch off of chem eng. should i just settle for a regular civil engineering job or take the risk in PE. P.S. I do not watn to pay for out of state. I have also heard that out of college an overseas job can pay 200,000 plus non taxable income. Is this true?</p>
<p>how do i start a question on this website? please please tell me.</p>
<p>Well, petroleum is not a branch of ChemE, it’s not even that close. I’ve never heard of anyone getting a job for 200,000 out of college. If you want to go into petroleum and don’t want to leave the state, you should get a degree in MechE, that is the closest thing.</p>
<p>USC offers undergraduate Mechanical or Chemical Engineering with a specialization in Petroleum Engineering.</p>
<p>[USC</a> Catalogue: The Schools: USC Viterbi School of Engineering: Petroleum Engineering: Degree Requirements](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2011/schools/engineering/petroleum_engineering/degree_requirements.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/cat2011/schools/engineering/petroleum_engineering/degree_requirements.html)</p>
<p>The starting salary for Petroleum Engineers is typically around $80,000. It will go up as you gain more experience.</p>
<p>Sigh…</p>
<p>Petroleum is just like any other industries. They do hire comp science, geology, petrophysics, mechanical, chemical/petro, civil engineerings. But as I’ve stated earlier, you have to be the cream of the crops or have solid internship experiences under your belt to get a job with an oil company. What I am trying to say is don’t worry about the end result i.e. salaries etc but focus on what you really like to study. It will reflect on your GPA and with good GPA will open doors to petroleum internships. If you don’t have a good GPA then your chances are slimmer and this is also true petroleum engineering major.</p>
<p>Also, I am seeing petroleum engineering students are now competing against with mechanical and chemical engineering for the drilling/reservoir positions.</p>
<p>There is no way that a mechanical engineer would be hired over a petroleum engineer for a petroleum engineering position. Mechanical engineering doesn’t even begin to cover anything having to do with what is below the ground. Simply looking at the course charts for each major side by side will show quite a difference between the two.</p>
<p>[Global</a> oil supply will peak in 2020, says energy agency | Environment | The Guardian](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/15/global-oil-supply-peak-2020-prediction]Global”>Global oil supply will peak in 2020, says energy agency | Peak oil | The Guardian)</p>
<p>[World</a> energy briefing hears of peak oil by 2020 | Energy Bulletin](<a href=“http://www.energybulletin.net/52204]World”>http://www.energybulletin.net/52204)</p>
<p>[World</a> energy briefing hears of peak oil by 2020 | Energy Bulletin](<a href=“http://www.energybulletin.net/52204]World”>http://www.energybulletin.net/52204)</p>
<p>[Peak</a> Oil 2020 - Environmental Capital - WSJ](<a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2007/02/22/peak-oil-2020/]Peak”>Peak Oil 2020 - WSJ)</p>
<p>[Respected</a> Oil Analyst Charles Maxwell Predicts Peak Oil Production by 2020 | HeatingOil.com](<a href=“http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/respected-oil-analyst-charles-maxwell-predicts-peak-oil-production-by-2020920/]Respected”>http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/respected-oil-analyst-charles-maxwell-predicts-peak-oil-production-by-2020920/)</p>
<p>these are predictions by professional energy speakers.</p>
<p>read up more using google if you want.</p>
<p>just trying to save someone from frustration after some hardwork at college;
js.</p>
<p>Frustrated because the price of oil will start to sky-rocket and they’ll start to make a killing? What’s a professional energy speaker?</p>
<p>Do PE’s deal extensively with chemistry?</p>
<p>I’m thinking about it as a potential major but I haven’t taken chemistry since freshman year so I don’t know how quickly i’ll pick it up in college.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In school, yes. At my school Chemical and Petroleum students pretty much take all the same courses in second year. But don’t worry if your chem is not so hot coming into first year, you’ll be taking a general chem class that will cover a lot of high school chem so you should be fine.</p>
<p>Petroleum Engineering and Chemical Engineering are very very different. Trying to compare the two is akin to comparing apples and oranges.</p>
<p>Petro. Eng = Fluid mechanics, geophysics,
Chem. Eng = heat transfer, chemistry etc.
@you of eh
The first couple years of ANY engineering program nearlyS identical.
It’s the past two years that students learn to apply their skills towards their respective engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>I’ve been a petroleum engineer for over 30 years now, and am the president of an independent oil and gas E&P company that I founded 22 years ago.</p>
<p>This is a great profession for the right person. It rewards competence, character and decision making. A strong background in physics is probably what I lean on most.</p>
<p>Work hard on writing and communication skills. Most engineers write very poorly. Learn to write a good business letter.</p>
<p>Don’t be too concerned about getting on with Exxon. Yes, they are well run, a good friend recently retired from the executive committee. Like all super-majors, they train you to be a cog in a larger machine. I do deals with the majors and, while their employees are extremely well paid, it’s still working in an anthill.</p>
<p>Get trained up by a large company, then move to someplace where you can gain equity in oil and gas wells. All of the guys I started with who stayed with the majors are well off, many at the VP level by now. All the guys who quit to go out on their own are multi-millionaires. </p>
<p>The degree only gets you in the door. After that, you’ll be judged by getting things done. The good news is, getting stuff done is bucketloads of fun. Drilling is fun. Engineering is fun stuff, and we get to work with terrific people.</p>
<p>Don’t be obsessed with the top programs. Some of the top guys in industry went to schools like New Mexico Tech and Texas Tech. I know at least 1 TT grad with a BS last year started at $100,000.</p>
<p>Roughneck or roustabout one summer, if you don’t mind hard, physical work. It will teach more about drilling and production than most classes, and potential employers love to see that willingness to get dirty. Otherwise, take an office internship. Not nearly as valuable, but still useful.</p>
<p>As to the future - the smartest people in the world have been trying to make oil and gas obsolete for over 100 years, and instead the reverse is happening. Our ability to economically extract oil and gas is making wind and solar obsolete before they even really get started.</p>
<p>In 1979 Jimmy Carter said we’d be out of oil in 10 years. Since then, we’ve consumed twice what world proven developed producing reserves (PDP’s) were at the time, and world reserves are at an all time high. I mainly work a basin that is 80 years old, and we’re nowhere close to done here. Oil is not found in the ground, it is found in the creative minds of the men and women who are part of the hunt.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Sparkybarkin-good info. Can you answer a couple more questions or elaborate a little if possile? I am going into PE as a second career after almost 20 years as an excavating contractor, currently finishing up my second year at a community college and need to transfer soon to complete my PetE. I would like to concentrate on drilling and production, since it would allow me to use some of my current skills and it interests me. Based on your previous post, you don’t think particular schools will provide a better education or opportunities? Just curious, because I will have to move out of state, and some schools such as Marietta and West Virginia are much closer for me (Michigan). I am also curious if any schools have more expertise in teaching shale oil/gas since that seems to be source of the future. Hoping to go the route you did, get experience in the field and then go on my own. After running a business for many years I want to do it again, just in a different industry. Once I transfer to a PE school, I will check into working in the fields for summers. With my extensive experience running equipment/running crews/laboring/Class A CDL it seems a position would be easy to find coming out of a PetE program.</p>
<p>Going to a college in Texas or Alaska will yield much better internship opportunities in the oil/gas industry than say Marietta or Penn state. Oil companies tend to recruit from colleges that are near their HQs and also near drilling operations. Generally where you go to college will be the location that you will work for your first 4-5 years on the job.</p>
<p>The colleges I would apply to from order of must desirable to least is:</p>
<p>UT Austin (excellent academics and college life)
Texas A&M (Good all around)
Colorado Mines (excellent academics)
Texas Tech/U of Alaska/Louisiana State/Oklahoma State (average)
Penn State/Tulsa/Marietta (Expensive and private except for Penn state)
New Mexico Institute of Science (town of 2,500 and very isolated, passion)
Montana Tech/West Virginia (Lots of Drinkers, small town, below average)</p>
<p>Each colleges curriculum is slightly different. For instance, In Alaska we learn about the specific complications of drilling & extracting oil from arctic locations. In Alaska the biggest employers of Petroleum engineers is British Petroleum. In Texas you are more likely to get a job for Shell or ExxonMobil. Oklahoma has Devon Energy’s HQ.</p>
<p>Colleges such as UT Austin and A&M tend to attract the best professors.
Starting salaries also differ depending on the college. For example the starting salary in Texas for Petro. Engineers is approximately $86,000. On the other hand in Alaska it is $98,000. Of course the cost of living is an important variable to consider as well.</p>
<p>No matter where you decide to go, hard work is the key that will unlock doors for you.</p>
<p>Hotjava,</p>
<p>Do you really think you need an engineering degree? If you have a strong background as a dirt contractor, including estimating and building, I’m pretty sure you could get on easily with a dirt contractor. Most of that is building roads/drilling locations, psuhing stuff with yellow metal or shooting with powder monkeys.</p>
<p>For drilling, the engineering degree is useful, don’t get me wrong, but a drilling contractors will train up smart people who show up on time and don’t use drugs, and a toolpusher makes 6 figures without a degree requirement. If you want to own/run a drilling or dirt contractor, your business experience is your degree. What you need now is oilfield specific experience.</p>
<p>Drilling is largely drilling. Contact a contractor in your area and see if they need help. Degree or not you must start at the bottom. Skills and smarts will make you move up very quickly. I’ve known guys to make toolpusher in under a year, superintendent in just 3-4. </p>
<p>Right now companies are looking for people to go to work. You’re already late 30’s? I must admit, by the time I was that age I had lost all taste for being a poor student. Bang on doors ready to work, get a taste for the business, work in industry for a year or so, then decide if Pet Eng is what you want to do. </p>
<p>Be aware, oilfield culture is the same the world over. The oilpatch never sleeps. If your phone rings at 3 AM, get out of bed and go to work. Morning report is 6 AM. That’s not negotiable. It’s gotten better - when I broke out engineers were in the office at 5:30 am for morning reports and worked 1/2 days saturdays. Now we take reports at home via computer. </p>
<p>A CDL is a big asset, as is heavy equipment experience. If you have a background as a dirt contractor, you know how stuff works. Those skills will translate easily.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Sparky,
Maybe I should do some asking around. I dont really have any contacts in the industry, and MI isn’t a big oil state. Bottom line, I have lost interest in sitting on a machine or in the seat of a truck. I enjoy bidding/planning projects and seeing them through a lot more these days, plus everything is starting to hurt from years of physical work. I like travel and working in the field, that is why Pet-E interests me. Plus, I figured that a degree would be the only way to move up the ladder and be taken seriously. I agree that being in your 30’s and going to school is not much fun, especially the financial side, and I find it hard to take seriously after years of running a real business. Second guessing the decision every day, I would much rather be doing something real and productive. It’s not that I can’t get work, I could get an operator job tomorrow, and I still do some work in the summer for some old clients etc, but just tired of it and need to do something else.</p>