petroleum engineering

<p>thats awesome, i am going to try and get an intership this summer, its going to be hard though since i'm going to be graduating from high school and have no experience</p>

<p>lol, that rig has a gym and a sauna. I know my buddy would bring is xbox 360 and he would play it at night after he was finished working for the day, lol.</p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck. Take it one step at a time and try your best. I love it man. Another good thing, is when you get time off, you really get time off, lol. You may have 2-3 weeks of just whatever you want to do. and you don't have to think about any work. This opens up the time to do even more traveling and make long vacations. My dad got bored at would work off shore, then he would, come in, and do computer operating at a chemical plant, lol. He would always brag, I have so much time off I can work 2 jobs, lol. And still have time off, lol.</p>

<p>If you ever have anymore questions let me know.</p>

<p>
[quote]
All of those stats are based on salaries.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uh, what stats? You still have not presented any salary data. Like I said, if the pay scales really are what you say they are, then you should have little problem in finding statistics to back them up. There are numerous trade magazines that publish a wealth of data. Just cite a few of them. Heck, if you can't find anything else, cite some of the blogs that are out there. </p>

<p>Look, ForeverLSU, I think I'm a fair guy. Come back with actual data, and then we can talk turkey. Not anecdotes, but data. Like I said, if you are really so sure about how the pay scales work, then you should have little trouble in finding a plethora of data to back you up. Otherwise, again, I have to return to what I said before: I have presented actual pay data, and you have not.</p>

<p>You misunderstood what I was trying to say when I said "all of those stats are based on salaries". I was talking about the BLS data, those stats. Your right, I didn't post any website that says petroleum engineers make 300,000 a year, because every site bases there data, including BLS on a 40 hour work week. The bare minimum a petroluem engineering pulls is 12 hours a day. You can even read the article I posted earlier about "vacationing on an offshore drilling rig" where it says there is a day and night crew that works 12 hours on a shift. That is 84 hours a week. And that is bare minimum, because if the rig has only one drilling engineer, they will stay up longer than that. </p>

<p>Petroleum</a> Engineers</p>

<p>The website states "Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data."</p>

<p>Now, for those on salary, they took an estimate of a 40 hour work week. Which is what petroleum engineers work in an office setting. You do the math. My figures are in the range that match up with the salary in the BLS stats. All you have to do is compensate for the overtime. They calculate 40 hours a week for everyone. Lets take physicians for example, my friends mom is anesthesiologist. Now BLS, lets look at the BLS stats for physicians.</p>

<p>Physicians</a> and Surgeons</p>

<p>It says that a anesthesiologist with less than 2 years experience will make around $259,948 a year. Now my friends mom told me she made 550,000 starting out her first year because of the hours she worked. You are completely neglecting to take into account that petroleum engineering professions work long hours just like physicians do. Yes, if a petroleum engineer is working in the city, the stats will match because they only work 40 hours a week. Just like a Family doctor can work 9-5 at there own practice. When I was stating those figures of 150,000 a year starting and 330,000 a year after 10 years experience that is what I was talking about. Just like I showed a few posts before, how an entry level engineer can make 150,000 a year, the salaries clearly match up if you do the math. My calculations are exact, and what I stated is not incorrect, I think you just got confused in what I was saying. Now if you don't believe it now, maybe we need to just send you a check stub, lol. But then you might steal my identity. My money is all made in overtime. Now if you still don't believe me, I don't know what your problem is. Even Blem reinforced what I said when he went to the PE fair.</p>

<p>To make a correction to an earlier post blem, Titian is Saturn's moon. Not Jupiter's I was thinking of Europa, Jupiter's moon. Every oil company, geologist, and petroleum engineer drools when they see Titian. Researchers estimate it to contain 50 million years of hydrocarbon reserves, lol. It snows methane there, lol. They have seas of methane gas.</p>

<p>Thanks Forever LSU, i have another question. I'm planning on applying for scholarships through the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Basically you just fill out a form, write an essay and send a transcript with 2 letter of recs to them. But the thing is that if i do get the scholarship, the form says i have a chance at an internship. i was wondering if you have any info on this and whether or not you did this before you entered college.</p>

<p>I never filled out any scholarships with them. If you get into the SPE right now though, you'll be way ahead of the game. That is very good. That is the kind of stuff they look for.</p>

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm studying Software Engineering (~Computer Engineering with an emphasis on CS). I want to specialize in scientific computing in the future and I think Reservoir Engineering is an application area.</p>

<p>Can anyone give me information on how people get into this field, such as would I need a Master's in Math/Petroleum/Reservoir/Computational Science & Engineering etc or can I wing it.</p>

<p>People get into the oil field by either job experience or a degree. My roomates dad was a mechanical engineer who switched to petroleum. He picked it up as he went. Right now there is such a demand for engineers they are generally accepting anyone with an engineering or math/physics concentration. Considering you are a software engineering major, I would say it would be harder for you to get a job as a reservoir engineer, than it would be for someone with a mechanical, civil engineering background, even chemical for that matter. The difference is the fields, as you would know, those fields I mentioned study the mechanical aspects, they take the statics and civil takes geology, plus they all usually take fluid dynamics or just plain old fluids. Which generally people either think mechanically or electrically. I think with the circuits thing I am about lost, lol. But I can always seem to visulize mechanics. You might be able to understand both. I would have to say the fluids classes are the most important thing, since everything in the well is fluids. The oil, wetting water, gas is fluid down at pressure and what not. So have the understanding of fluids and how to control the formation. We spend all our time visualizing and interpretting well logs. The thing about a well log is, I can see that we have a 90 percent water saturation rate, while you may see they have a 88 or 87. Or you may think it might be higher. Who's right, its all about interpretation and calculation, and opinion. Thats why you may have standards set by one company, and a different company can have a different standard for that interpretation. You can't really say that I would be right or you would. Here's the deal though about petroleum. It's a gambler's game, good thing I always liked playing poker, lol. Generally whoever is drilling the well, and the production company who is buying it will have there engineers disagree on the production compacity. Of course that is the way it is. The drilling company will say it has more to make more of a profit, and the production will say it has less because they don't want to pay too much. I think its more about the math and geology than anything. Also, I would say a petroleum engineer has more responsiblity than others. Especially with the lack of experience going around. When your operating a rig that cost 2 mil a day to operate, your praying to god nothing goes wrong. That what you calculated, the geologist interpreted, and what the petrophysicist interpreted are all correct. These days a well offshore is not profitable unless they have about 300 million barrells worth of oil in the ground that can be produced. Now that may seem crazy, but it is the reality we face. So, you really want to be right. Fortunately, technology has made this less of a hit or miss. But still in all, you don't know until you drill it and see what it down there. </p>

<p>They would want to use you like they use their electrical engineers. Programming valves to open and close from the office, or designing/implementing the all of the computer controled operations on the rig. Generally though, from what my friends who work at Chevron tell me, the electrical engineers stay in the office type setting. But listen to this, one of our associate professors graduated from UT with an electrical engineering degree and he went directly drilling for Amoco, before it got absorbed by BP. The way I see it you could get a geology minor, or just get a masters in petroleum. Generally companies want students who are ready to start working. But as long as you have the math background I think it would be worth the shot. The key to getting into the field is internships. If you can get a summer intership with an oil company that will get your foot in the door. This is usually all about location. Oil companies usually just have recruiting in oil producing areas or where petroleum engineering majors are found. The same way you don't see NASA or Google coming recruit at LSU. I know here engineers either go into Oil, Oil refining, construction, or diesel engine stuff, for CAT, John Deere, etc. I mean you look at the companies that recruit for engineers here and 60-70 percent are oil/chemical, and 15 to 20 percent are construction. I would say about 5-10 are in the aerospace/turbine development, and the IT/Tech all we have is IBM/Microsoft. I don't know of any southern boys wanting to work in cali or washington. I have never seen anyone with a microsoft hat or shirt, not to say there isn't any, but generaly those guys are asian/arab/indian. I'm not trying to exploit race, if it seems that way. But all of my friends are either petrol or mechanical majors. Thats it. We like wearing our ExxonMobil, BP, ChevronTexaco, Shell, CAT and John Deere, Valero, DOW, Devon, etc. Let me break down louisiana for you. Everyone in southern louisiana works for oil companies, or is related to the oil field in some way. Whether they are electricians, carpenters, mechanics, machinists, engineers, or farmers, and don't forget commercial fishermen. North louisiana you really don't have much of a choice, its either paper mills, oil, or farming, lol. Now Lake Charles, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge all can be considered regions, lol. Lake Charles is the chemical region. Thats all they have. New Orleans is refineries and Nuclear, and Baton rouge is refineries, nuclear, and construction. Thats it. I haven't met an LSU grad yet that works for someone like google, microsoft, and IBM. I don't here of anyone from the university of washington becoming working for an oil company either. Its all about location.</p>

<p>Forever LSU has mentioned several different subdisciplines of petroleum engineering: reservoir engineering, production engineering, drilling engineering, and maybe a few others.</p>

<p>What do engineers working in each of these fields do? How similar/different are the working conditions, major employers, pay, etc.?</p>

<p>LSU's statements could have some truth to it, although the number of lol's I've seen seem to undermine his credibility. Whatever the case may be, I'm reading the information in your posts with caution.</p>

<p>Anyway, I don't think we should argue about who's right about salaries and who isn't. Let's just share information, accept it or reject it, and move on with our lives. It's a forum after all.</p>

<p>one more question Forever LSU: what area of petroleum engineering do you plan to work for? reservoir, production, drilling, etc.</p>

<p>
[quote]
You misunderstood what I was trying to say when I said "all of those stats are based on salaries". I was talking about the BLS data, those stats. Your right, I didn't post any website that says petroleum engineers make 300,000 a year, because every site bases there data, including BLS on a 40 hour work week. The bare minimum a petroluem engineering pulls is 12 hours a day. You can even read the article I posted earlier about "vacationing on an offshore drilling rig" where it says there is a day and night crew that works 12 hours on a shift. That is 84 hours a week. And that is bare minimum, because if the rig has only one drilling engineer, they will stay up longer than that.</p>

<p>Petroleum Engineers</p>

<p>The website states "Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data."</p>

<p>Now, for those on salary, they took an estimate of a 40 hour work week. Which is what petroleum engineers work in an office setting. You do the math. My figures are in the range that match up with the salary in the BLS stats. All you have to do is compensate for the overtime. They calculate 40 hours a week for everyone. Lets take physicians for example, my friends mom is anesthesiologist. Now BLS, lets look at the BLS stats for physicians.</p>

<p>Physicians and Surgeons</p>

<p>It says that a anesthesiologist with less than 2 years experience will make around $259,948 a year. Now my friends mom told me she made 550,000 starting out her first year because of the hours she worked. You are completely neglecting to take into account that petroleum engineering professions work long hours just like physicians do. Yes, if a petroleum engineer is working in the city, the stats will match because they only work 40 hours a week. Just like a Family doctor can work 9-5 at there own practice. When I was stating those figures of 150,000 a year starting and 330,000 a year after 10 years experience that is what I was talking about. Just like I showed a few posts before, how an entry level engineer can make 150,000 a year, the salaries clearly match up if you do the math. My calculations are exact, and what I stated is not incorrect, I think you just got confused in what I was saying. Now if you don't believe it now, maybe we need to just send you a check stub, lol. But then you might steal my identity. My money is all made in overtime. Now if you still don't believe me, I don't know what your problem is. Even Blem reinforced what I said when he went to the PE fair.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You're right, I don't believe what you said, and for one simple reason. Your analysis contains a serious logical flaw. </p>

<p>Take your discussion of the pay of physicians. You say that anesthesiologists make about $250k a year, based on a 40 hour workweek. The problem is that, even if they do work 80 hours a week, they will still probably make $250k a year.. That's because physicians are almost always 'exempt' white-collar employees, meaning they are paid a salary, and hence not only are not eligible for overtime pay, but also aren't eligible for hourly pay. They get paid their salary, and however long they have to work every week is irrelevant. It is extremely are for a physician to not be considered exempt.</p>

<p>The same holds for petroleum engineers. Only in rare occasions have I heard of a petroleum engineer who wasn't classified as exempt, and hence ineligible for overtime. {Roughnecks and roustabouts are eligible, but rarely engineers.} I do agree that there have been limited cases where engineers, especially those who are starting out, are paid overtime. But not all petroleum engineering jobs offer this. If you do have this, then count yourself lucky, for not everybody does. </p>

<p>For those you don't believe me, consider the following PetE jobs. Notice how they clearly state that the job is exempt from overtime. So, if they demand that you work 80 hours a week, then you're stuck working 80 hours a week for no extra pay. </p>

<p><a href="https://weatherford.taleo.net/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=FlowDispatcher&flowTypeNo=13&pageSeq=2&reqNo=80560&art_servlet_language=en&csNo=10000&media_id=6583%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://weatherford.taleo.net/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=FlowDispatcher&flowTypeNo=13&pageSeq=2&reqNo=80560&art_servlet_language=en&csNo=10000&media_id=6583&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.nndpm.navajo.org/CLASS_SPECS/New_Specs/P/Principal%20Petroleum%20Engineer.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nndpm.navajo.org/CLASS_SPECS/New_Specs/P/Principal%20Petroleum%20Engineer.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Consider the following interpretation of the FLSA.</p>

<p>If your job utilizes advanced, typically highly-specialized, training or education, you may be exempt from overtime wages. Such professions include doctors, engineers, teachers, accountants, and attorneys.</p>

<p>Am</a> I Entitled To Overtime Pay | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Lawyers, Malpractice Attorney, Birth Injury, Car Accident Lawyer</p>

<p>The bottom line, ForeverLSU, is that your analysis does not hold for many (probably most) petroleum engineers, because they never get paid overtime. Like I said, if you do, then you're lucky, but others should not assume they will be just as lucky.</p>

<p>I plan on doing drilling blem, that is if all goes well. We still have to see what will happen with Barack in the white house. Since the bush lifted the drilling ban, the oil companies will have plenty of new turf to sink their teeth into. Yet, they still have to drill 50 miles offshore or futher. Which is not where the majority of the deposits are. Like the big florida salt dome that is right off of the coast. We would have to be able to get way closer to get to the "juicy" deposits so to speak. Now, here's the deal. If Barack's tax plan is like he said it is, then the middle class will be all good. But the same will not be so for the oil companies. They already are heavily taxed for property rights and everything in between. When an oil company has 500 million dollar a year operations in one area like alaska they can't afford to be taxed heavily. To add to this the prices are no longer 140 a barrel. 60 dollars a barrel they are still making large amounts of money, but its cutting it close. You can not do offshore drilling with that price. Particularly deep offshore, because it is too expensive. Oil companies these days cannot even think about drilling a formation unless it can produce atleast 300 million barrels. Which a good bit. Not to mention what would also hurt is if obama wants to reinstate the drilling ban. Now I don't think they will be able to this this because the democrats still don't have enough seats to avoid a filibuster. But if you see he wants to put the drilling ban back in place. That is not good for the home team. I suggest you see what happens when he takes office. Because honestly if all that happens, it won't be nice. Then I would definately suggest considering a different discipline. If that happens, it will not be pretty. I would probably have to bite the bullet and and finish the major in civil or chemical. Yes, it would be that bad. Now, I agree with alternative energy, we cannot afford to wait any longer. We must develop it because only is reaching the peak. Were squeezing out 85-88 million barrels a day, and it isn't going to go any higher. We have to develop it. I new president can change the game drastically though. I really feel sorry for anyone who owns a small business. They will be hammered hard. You'll probably see alot of people go out of business to tell you the truth. We just have to wait and see what will happen. The scariest thing is blem we don't exactly know how much oil is left in the middle east, we know what we have because our engineers and geologist have calculated the figures. But we have no clue what the middle east has, what we have from them is what they give us. We do not know if what they state is true or not, or even if they could put out production to higher levels.</p>

<p>To answer mrniphyt's question, drilling engineers deal with the exploration of oil and gas. They specialize in finding gas deposits that will be cost effective. Reservoir engineers deal with the enhancing production capability, well placement, and enhanced oil recovery tecniques like steam injection. Production specializes in the interface between the well and the formation, they are the ones that will perforate the casing, control sand, and seperate the water, gas, and oil during production. Working conditions vary depending on the category. Drilling engineers stay on the rig and proably have the most stressful job of the 3, drilling engineers tend to travel a whole lot more as oil gets hard to find and they have to go to the far ends of the earth to find oil and gas. Reservoir get on rigs when something goes wrong or production stops. They will go into fix the situation or stimuatlate the well back to producing with various methods. Production engineers don't do much besides monitoring the the flow of the well. Thats where the majority of petrol engineers go. You basically manage the production platform, while a driling engineer and reservoir will be dealing with the classic derrick or mast that we all know and love. Production is the easy one, you don't go offshore all that often, companies usually hire people called productionist who are not engineers to monitor the platforms and the engineers will give the productionist on the platforms instructions and projects to do. This the the petroleum engineering job where you'll sit in the office and work the 9-5 job, 40 hours a week. You won't get paid anywhere near what the drilling or even reservoir will. But you can argue that the time you have on shore versus the other two specialties makes up the difference. Drilling is quite different. These guys spend the majority of their time on the rigs and traveling. You might work a 12 hour shift, that is only if they have another engineer to replace you during that time. It is a common practice to work 20 hour *<strong><em>s and only get 4 hours of sleep a night, or pull 2 days straight and sleep on the 3rd day. You'll work 90-100 hours plus a week easy. Which is where to overtime and the big money comes in. But *</em></strong>s for drilling varies. You may work 21 days and get 14 days off, and then go back and do the same thing, some work 14 and 14, 14 and 7, 28 and 14, 28 and 28. All depends on teh company. Some may even work 6 months traveling from area to area before they come home again. Alot of drilling engineers if they are really money hungry or if they are young will work 300 plus days a year, and get 4-5 days out of the month off. Drilling engineers move up quickly and really can move up quite quickly up in pay, drilling doesn't have a salary cap either, because the more you learn the more you get paid. They usually end up doing consultant work. Drilling engineers also get large incentive bonuses for racking up time offshore. Drilling is like an art, and takes years and years of training to perfect and master. While production on the other hand, is realitively easy. A production engineer can work 5 years directly out of college, and depending on how long they work, they can hit there top pay rather quickly, because there just isn't that much to perfect. I say this because in working 5 years off shore, you'll see every type and variety of problem you'll ever encounter. Reservoir falls in the middle in both pay and working conditions. I hope that describes well enough.</p>

<p>Sakky, I will tell you that louisiana is very liberal on labor laws, there are no unions here, lol. You can usually work however long you like. And the companies in this area pay their employees for their work. They really don't go by the book. I will say that every engineer I ever spoke to worked in Louisiana. Louisisana is the most corrupt state in the union and can really care less about the labor laws. I was pulling 90 plus a week at 16 years of age because I wanted to. They don't tend to follow OSHA either. Louisiana only has less than 1000 petrol engineers which the entire petrol engineering body consists of around 17 thousand registered, now it may be more because alot of mechanical and other specialties have switched to petroleum. But realitively everyone I've talked to hear makes really nice incomes. Your probably right in saying that, alot of engineers I've spoken to work for smaller companies where the engineering staff is rather small. They have worked for companies like halliburton but companies like that don't have that many engineers in this area. I may just have preconcieved notions that all engineers have the same opportunities.</p>

<p>I will say this though, if a drilling engineer is on salary and is working hours in excess of 40 plus hours a week and they are not getting bonuses or overtime for their work, then it is just not worth it. That would be like getting raped. In that case I would probaly give the company the shaft.</p>

<p>"Biofuels are corrosive to engines". I assume this refers to ethanol, NOT bio butanol.</p>

<p>In the case that sakky explained, if you don't love geology or petroleum engineering, then there is no reason to do it unless you will get paid by the day or by the hour. Unless you get a salary that is quite generous like working 50-60 hours a week, that wouldn't be that bad. But if you get in the 70+ range then it is really not worth taking a salary for a job like that. It would be stupid to do such a thing, which is probably why they are having a hard time finding students to major in petroleum engineering elsewhere. I know LSU classes are filled to capacity. They also get favorable offers. If wouldn't even pay if you weren't offered a large sign on bonus either. Our graduates are getting in the 25,000+ range for sign on bonuses. If you don't get that then it is really senseless. Which also may be why alot of people just aren't doing it anymore. Also, if the company doesn't pay pension and offer 401k match of 100percent up to 6 percent, with full paid medical and dental, then it wouldn't be worth it either. Those are some of the major reasons people want to work for oil companies. If you aren't recieveing these offers then you are just getting "used" to say that in a polite manner.</p>

<p>yes ethanol</p>

<p>In the case of overtime pay, I suggest anyone look at this discussion page. A few engineers of different specialties are discussing it. Some get overtime some don't. It's pretty interesting to hear their opinions on the subject. Nearly every engineer in the post said they wouldn't work a weekend unless they would get paid overtime. Let me tell you this, no matter the specialty, engineering is to time consuming and challenging of a degree to get a job where you are not getting paid for what you are worth. That being said read a few of their posts.</p>

<p>How</a> to Improve Myself to Get Ahead in My Work - Mandatory overtime - should I be happy or sad?</p>