Petroleum engineers explore for and produce oil and natural gas. If a workable reservoir containing oil or natural gas is discovered, petroleum engineers work to achieve the maximum profitable recovery from the reservoir by determining and developing the most efficient production methods.
A petroleum engineer checks the flow of crude oil at a pumping unit.
Beacause only a small proportion of the oil and gas in a reservoir will flow out under natural forces, petroleum engineers develop and use various enhanced recovery methods. These include injecting water, chemicals, or steam into an oil reservoir to force more of the oil out, and horizontal drilling or fracturing to connect more of a gas reservoir to a well. Since even the best methods in use today recover only a portion of the oil and gas in a reservoir, petroleum engineers work to find ways to increase this proportion.
Petroleum engineers held over 14,000 jobs in 1992, mostly in the petroleum industry and closely allied fields. Employers include major oil companies and hundreds of smaller, independent oil exploration, production, and service companies. Engineering consulting firms, government agencies, oil field services, and equipment suppliers also employ petroleum engineers. Others work as independent consultants.
Because petroleum engineers specialize in the discovery and production of oil and gas, relatively few are employed in the refining, transportation, and retail sectors of the oil and gas industry.
Most petroleum engineers work where oil and gas are found. Large numbers are employed in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and California, including offshore sites. Also, many American petroleum engineers work overseas in oil-producing countries.
The price of oil has a major effect on the level of employment opportunities for petroleum engineers in the United States. A high price of oil and gas makes it profitable for oil exploration firms to seek oil and gas reservoirs, and they will hire petroleum engineers to do so. With low oil prices, however, it is cheaper to purchase needed oil from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), such as Saudi Arabia, who have vast oil reserves.
Employment of petroleum engineers is expected to decline through the year 2005 unless oil and gas prices unexpectedly increase enough to encourage increased exploration for oil in this country. Even if new job growth doesn't materialize, employment opportunities for petroleum engineers should be good because the number of degrees granted in petroleum engineering has traditionally been low. So, new graduates are not likely to significantly exceed the number of job openings that will arise as petroleum engineers transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.
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Reprinted with Permission of U. S. Department of Labor