re: Do you think Petroleum Engineers will be needed in 30 years?

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Yeah, you can do it for 1 barrel.....but what if there were 100 barrels......how many gallons is it now smart guy???

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Oh, no you don't. That's a change order. Come up with another $150,000 and we can talk. For $300,000, I'll sell you my proprietary spreadsheet that calculates this and you can use it in perpetuity and won't have to pay me anymore.

I understand that but we are talking 30 to 40 years till retirement age. I am trying to think further than that graph goes. I got out of it but have been toying with the idea of getting back in.

2/3 not bad

yes. There may be fewer of them and many might be doing different work than they are now, but they'll definitely still be around.

I went into Electrical engineering because it will always be in need and its diverse. Solar, nuclear, etc. As well as being able to venture into other avenues. I pretty sure in certain states the need will be there, just not as many depending on what other avenues open up in O&G.

My job is safe. 1.6 percent chance of being taken over by automation.

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Said all the soy boys who wanted a fat check but couldn’t handle working in the field.

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Field work sucks. My life has improved since I ditched the field work and get to work in an air conditioned office for more money

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I guess the only reason I question it is if electric or some other form of cars take off in the next 30 years where would that leave the demand?

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Oil will still be needed. Most people don’t realize that oil plays a part in almost everything that we buy not just gasoline. As the demand for gasoline goes down there will be demands for other components of the crude.

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Would the OT stay in O&G and risk it or change industries while you're young and still can?

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There are basically three reasons I’ve heard, over the years, about why oil & gas jobs might go away:

1. Peak oil - the idea that we will reach a point where we run out of new reserves to tap. Experts have been blabbering about this for 50 years and they keep revising the theoretical date we will reach peak oil further into the future. The combination of exponential demand growth and technological improvements have pretty much debunked the idea that we will reach peak oil before it is replaced as our primary source of energy. Which leads to...

2. Peak DEMAND - the idea that new energy sources will replace crude oil & natural gas, and eventually cause O&G to go the way of coal. This WILL happen eventually, but “when?” is a pretty damned important question.

I personally believe that electric cars/trucks will become the norm in the next 20-30 years, which would make power generation the real question. Renewables are taking an increasing share, but fusion is the thing that could wipe O&G off the map. I don’t know if we are 15 or 150 years away from a sustained fusion reaction with net energy output - it’s a wild card.

3. Automation. I think this is overstated. As in most industries, automation will continue to take an increasing share of the workload. Artificial intelligence has the potential to take over a lot of reservoir engineering tasks. But that’s not specific to O&G, and history has shown us that automation/productivity enhancements don’t replace human engineers as fast as demand growth (see: autocad). Meaning there will still be an increasing number of jobs.

Here’s my take on PETE overall: if you want to be an engineer, go into chemical or mechanical (or civil if you can’t hack it, I guess...). Even if oil & gas is around in its current form for 200 more years, it will still be a boom and bust industry. Other engineering fields give you much more flexibility and the earning potential is the same. Just my 2 cents.

I agree, people always say that we will always use oil for plastics and other manufacturing, but you take transportation out of the demand and oil will be nearly worthless