Employers
Approximately 33,500 petroleum engineers are employed in the United States. Petroleum engineers work for major oil companies as well as smaller oil companies. They work in oil exploration and production. Some petroleum engineers are employed by consulting firms and equipment suppliers. The federal government is also an employer of petroleum engineers. States with the highest level of employment for petroleum engineers are Texas, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, and Louisiana.
Starting Out
The most common and perhaps the most successful way to obtain a petroleum engineering job is to secure a summer internship or co-op during college and then apply to that company when you graduate. Also, oil companies often have recruiters attend job fairs for students in their last year of engineering school. Being willing to relocate will allow more opportunities.
Engineering internships and co-op programs where students attend classes for a portion of the year and then work in an engineering-related job for the remainder of the year allow students to graduate with valuable work experience sought by employers. Many times these students are employed full-time after graduation at the place where they had their internship or co-op job.
As in most engineering professions, entry-level petroleum engineers first work as junior engineers under the supervision of experienced professionals for a number of years. New engineers usually are assigned to a field location where they learn different aspects of field petroleum engineering. Initial responsibilities may include well productivity, reservoir and enhanced recovery studies, production equipment and application design, efficiency analyses, and economic evaluations. Field assignments are followed by other opportunities in regional and headquarters offices.
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