How to become Petroleum Engineer in 2024

Petroleum Engineer 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.

Petroleum Engineer is Also Know as

In different settings, Petroleum Engineer is titled as

  • Completion Engineer
  • Drilling Engineer
  • Engineer
  • Operations Engineer
  • Petroleum Engineer
  • Petroleum Production Engineer
  • Project Production Engineer
  • Project Reservoir Engineer
  • Reservoir Engineer
  • Reservoir Engineering Consultant

Education and Training of Petroleum Engineer

Petroleum Engineer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Petroleum Engineer

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Petroleum Engineer

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Petroleum Engineer

Training Required for Petroleum Engineer

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Petroleum Engineer in different industries are

What Do Petroleum Engineer 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.
  • Monitor production rates, and plan rework processes to improve production.
  • Analyze data to recommend placement of wells and supplementary processes to enhance production.
  • Specify and supervise well modification and stimulation programs to maximize oil and gas recovery.
  • Direct and monitor the completion and evaluation of wells, well testing, or well surveys.
  • Assist engineering and other personnel to solve operating problems.
  • Develop plans for oil and gas field drilling, and for product recovery and treatment.
  • Maintain records of drilling and production operations.
  • Confer with scientific, engineering, and technical personnel to resolve design, research, and testing problems.
  • Write technical reports for engineering and management personnel.
  • Evaluate findings to develop, design, or test equipment or processes.
  • Assign work to staff to obtain maximum utilization of personnel.
  • Interpret drilling and testing information for personnel.
  • Design and implement environmental controls on oil and gas operations.
  • Coordinate the installation, maintenance, and operation of mining and oil field equipment.
  • 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.
  • Simulate reservoir performance for different recovery techniques, using computer models.
  • Take samples to assess the amount and quality of oil, the depth at which resources lie, and the equipment needed to properly extract them.
  • Coordinate activities of workers engaged in research, planning, and development.
  • Design or modify mining and oil field machinery and tools, applying engineering principles.
  • Test machinery and equipment to ensure that it is safe and conforms to performance specifications.
  • Conduct engineering research experiments to improve or modify mining and oil machinery and operations.

Qualities of Good Petroleum Engineer

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • 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.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • 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 that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • 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).
  • 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).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.

Tools Used by Petroleum Engineer

  • Computer scanners
  • Desktop computers
  • Laptop computers
  • Personal computers
  • Personal digital assistants PDA

Technology Skills required for Petroleum Engineer

  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • C#
  • C++
  • Computer Modelling Group CMG STARS
  • Dassault Systemes CATIA
  • DFA Capital Management GEMS
  • Eclipse IDE
  • Enterprise resource planning ERP software
  • eProduction Solutions PanSystem
  • Finite element analysis FEA software
  • GeoGraphix ARIES Portfolio
  • Google Analytics
  • IBM Notes
  • IHS Petra
  • IHS QUE$TOR
  • Landmark Graphics TOW/cs
  • Linux
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Visual Studio
  • Microsoft Word
  • Neotec WELLFLO
  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Java
  • Oracle Primavera Systems
  • Python
  • R
  • SAP software
  • SAS
  • Schlumberger ECLIPSE
  • Schlumberger Petrel E&P
  • Schlumberger PVTi
  • Software development tools
  • Structure query language SQL
  • TERRASCIENCES TerraStation
  • The MathWorks MATLAB
  • TIBCO Spotfire
  • TRC Consultants PHDWin
  • Web browser software
  • Well Flow Dynamics Wellflow