re: Finding jobs abroad in the Oil and Gas industry

Thanks

I'm sure I'll have a degree one day even if it's in something easy just for the sake of having one

I'm thinking that might be a couple years down the road. I don't want to get into any sort of debt for school

Just curious what kind of entry level jobs would a person wanting to get started in the O&G industry need to be looking at(I have a Business Degree)?

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Just curious what kind of entry level jobs would a person wanting to get started in the O&G industry need to be looking at(I have a Business Degree)?

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i'm curious about this as well, only i have a JD and am barred in LA.

Contact the Schlumberger office in Larose, LA. I think they may be hiring. You could be a fit in Wireline with your EE background. Also they love people who are willing to travel. They are always looking to send people on international assignments.

HoustonT

What do you do if you dont mind me asking?

my friend buck works off-shore somewhere in SE Asia and lives in the Phillipenes, he's baller blockin and livin'it up over there.

I suggest you sit down with an advisor and let him review your transcript, have your boss write a letter detailing your work history. I was in your situation about ten years ago, and was surprised by how helpful they were for an unconventional student working full time.

I am a petroleum grad - Jan 06.

You can definitely be a drilling engineer without being a PETE - granted that is probably the "best" degree to have if you want to be a drilling / completions engineer. That said, the majors higher all different engineering disciplines to fill them out. Mechanical, chemical are the first 2x that come to mind. I must say that I haven't come across to many industrial engineers but that's not to say they aren't out there. For sure though the super majors would be your best bet to "break out". There is nothing wrong working for majors, just not my preference. They normally have great compensation packages and will send you to as many schools as you can stomach.

I'm not sure if Fred Thurber is still there, he was a petroleum faculty member who did alot with trying to get students jobs etc. If he is, it may be worth dropping in as he could give you more advice of what you should do to increase your chances of getting into the industry. Also probably worth passing by career services and talking with some of those guys as they probably have some useful tips / advice.

As far as directional, that will be a bit tougher. All the older directional guys have some drilling experience. Alot of the younger guys (like myself) don't necessarily have that experience, but have several years experience in the field learning basic drilling principles. That said, with the way the industry it hurting for people right now service companies may be taking any engineers they can get.

How far along are you - are you a junior now? Would a swap to mechanical be possible? I always hated mechanical but that is arguably the most versatile degree in engineering you can have. Do you know that the drilling industry is what you want to do for a career? If so, I know it can seem frustrating to feel like you are taking a step back, but in the long run it may be worth it.

Another route you can look at is to go to a drilling contractor (Ensco, Diamond, Transocean - all offshore but I don't know too much about land) and get field experience that way. Your production experience will definitely help. Most of these contractors have a "fast track" program where they accelerate you up the ranks so you spend ~6 months in a position then move up to get lots of exposure really fast.

Not sure if any of that helped. I'm not gonna say you should switch majors, but if you know you want to be in drilling, a PETE degree is the best way to get there (and probably a much higher starting salary out of school). The only downside, is with a PETE degree you are locked into the industry, which hopefully won't be a bad thing, but you never know what can happen.

Anyone engineer I talk to that is just joining this industry (drilling/completions), I give them the following advice:

1 - Get as much field experience as you can. All the good engineers can relate the the field / operations guys because they have been there. The guys with no field experience can't - and it shows.

2 - Get in and stay in deepwater. We don't see the fluctuations in the market that land does, the dollar figured across the board are more, and the majority of deepwater guys are older which means they will be hanging it up soon.

HoustonT and Zach thanks for the info.

If I could switch and basically not have to start over I would. I really wanted to do PETE but cant afford another 4 years, that's passing everything the first time. I work offshore over the summers and winter breaks to put my self through school so makes summer school or intersession tough. Yes I am a junior right now and am very certain drilling is what I want. Yes production is more job security but it is redundant and boring almost. The fast pace and stress intensive style of drilling suits me a lot more and the fact that it is always different makes it much more interesting. Have heard before to try and get with the contractors to get some experience before, going to try and contact Rowan and some others this next week.

Appreciate it big time, one last question. Seeing how I think its going to be pretty hard to go straight to a drilling eng what job would you recommend I target that would help lead to DE job? Only thing I can think of is directional driller which is diff attainable when I grad. Have a friend that has been doing that since he grad with Scientific, hopefully he can pull some strings.