Should I continue my dream of becoming a Petroleum and Natural Gas engineer?

I really need help. I am a 17 year old girl who has always loved math and physics and I’ve always been intrigued by oil rigs over in the Persian Gulf or in the Gulf of Mexico. My dream has always been to go to West Virginia University and to graduate with a Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering degree with a specialization in drilling engineering so I could (hopefully) work on an oil rig, like I’ve always wanted to. I know in the beginning you start out small and you work your way up, but my main goal is to work with drilling under the sea floor. Lately I’ve been reading forums on the decline of necessity for Petroleum engineers and it’s scaring me. Is it really declining that much? Should I still continue my dream? I don’t want to work so hard in college and then graduate, and not able to find a job. I really need some advice!

Timing the employment market is tough. All the students who bloated the market because they got into it for the bucks are finding a tough go of it with oil as cheap as it is. That will have the impact of dissuading the money hunters from getting in now and many of the recent graduates will likely seek other fields of employment. It’s impossible to predict the future, but there is a limited amount of oil and prices will certainly go up some time. When? It’s hard to say. If you enter now though, it seems like it would be like buying a stock low. It’s counter intuitive, but the best way to invest. Hopefully someone who is in the industry can chime in with a longer term forecast. The common wisdom here is do what you are interested in and don’t try to time the market. Good luck.

I’ll just stick with it and hope for the best. Thanks!

Your job prospects in the field will be closely tied to oil prices.

Also be aware that conditions where oil is (isolated oil rigs, very hot or very cold places, tar sands, very socially and religiously conservative countries, countries with frequent political violence, etc.) may not be the most pleasant.

I’m with eyemgh on this one.

The market today isn’t where the market will be in four years, or twenty. I don’t know what the long term outlook for oil prices looks like, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be $40 a barrel forever. Job prospects for petroleum engineering majors are rough right now (I go to a big PetE school, and at the last job fair none of the major oil companies showed up - I take it they aren’t hiring), but it can only go up from here.

A lot of success for engineering in college comes down to motivation - there’s going to be a ton of work, how willing are you to do it? If petroleum engineering is your passion, you’ll do much better majoring in it than trying to force yourself to work through a different subject that you have no real interest in.

My nephew took almost two years in finding a job, and even then, he had to settle for a non PE job. No one can predict the market, so no one can tell you what the future holds.

I’ve heard that PE majors at my S’s school are having a tough time. I’ve also heard that a variety of types of engineers had historically been employed by oil companies. It seems that if you have an interest in another engineering specialty it might still leave you an oil field option but if the market is bad there will still be options beyond that one industry.

If you truly enjoy the field and are aware that it is commodity based, then it is worth your consideration. Don’t get into it only for the money (which doesn’t sound like you are). My S is a junior in petroleum engineering and he has thought about switching to another discipline, but is not sure as of yet. He does enjoy the classes and will be taking a business certificate to supplement, regardless. Most petroleum engineers do not work on the rigs or out in the field. Yes, they should get exposure, because it will make them that much more knowledgable, but most work in an office setting and many are in Houston.

Here is an article about the possibility of an oil price shock in 2016. Of course, nobody knows for sure, but it gives some perspective on the consequences of halting so many current projects.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/03/27/why-we-could-see-oil-price-shock-2016/81336776/