HSE is an important Department in Major O&G Company. A lot of company now have big Loss Prevention Department as well and the pay once you get the experience etc is quite good.

izzi, which field are you talking about? Oil & Gas?

The Oil & Gas requirement are similar to a lot of others, if you're a mechanical engineer, you can also work in O & G as they will require those in the plants or even upstream (for fabrication projects) etc etc.

What is important though is you need to have the right attitude. Can work in a team and have good communication skills.

A specific skill in Oil & Gas usually relates to the Geosciences (Geology & geophysics) and Petroleum Engineering. These 2 skills or degree will carry a lot of weight because the industry is really in need of fresh grads as the old guard is retiring.

Petronas I know will hire Chemical/Electrical engineers and convert them at UTP to become Petroleum Engineer so you may want to ask the interviewer for that opportunity as well.

Try looking at the OP and it has all the necessary list of O&G companies.

If you're experienced (not necessarily in O&G), you may want to register with worldwideworker.com as they are like Global jobstreet for O&G with.

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Added on February 20, 2011, 12:56 pmAre you kidding me? Petrophysicist are a dying breed in O&G industry. MNCs will step over each other to try and get you to work for them. It's one of the hardest skill sets to hire because, it's very rare that you get a petrophysics degree (I don't they have any in any uni) so mostly, the O&G companies will spend the first 3-5 years training science grads to be petrophysicist.

Apply for all Operators, they will hire you.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Feb 20 2011, 12:56 PM

PP works like a dog. But even a 5 years PP with experience can command salary in the 15-20K range in Malaysia a month. A lot of those company doing the outsourced subsurface study faced huge problems when it comes to PP. They cannot find one.

Same like Geological Modeler. Market rate for that with a 10 year experience is 35K per month on a permanent basis. Both PP and GM can command around 1500/day day rate if you're not on a contract or permanent basis.

If you're a mechanical engineer, try and get a job as a drilling engineer, another rare species in the industry. Market rate is in the 2000-3000 per day rate. This of course is when you have all the necessary experience. So for those who are with 2-3 years experience. Be patient, your value will just increase with experience.I really advise people already in O&G to get as much experience as possible (operations/Study/planning side), try and get into all of the project team as much as possible. Learn from your mentor and your senior staff. Don't be malu malu to ask questions. Tak paham, tanya ... that's the fastest way you will learn.

Okay, that's enough advice for one day.

Yeah but if they know you have a PP degree, you are extremely marketable. PP don't usually go to offshore but I would recommend that you do go during one of the logging operation so you get an idea what the vendors (SLB/Halliburton/Sperry Sun) are doing. It will give you a lot of hands-on knowledge and will allow you to not kena kencing by vendor. I bet you they will tell that you will need this tool lah, that tool la ... kencing semua tu.

Work like a dog during drilling operation only. Be prepared to wait for the logs at 2Am in the morning at the office (when there is drilling activity la). Once you have a lot of experience, you may be required to travel to all sorts of places for data review (That's what Petronas does to their experienced PP), go to Libya/Algeria/London/Paris to look at all the data for block acquisition.

Good Luck!

Piping?

All I know is this, my brother who had a mechanical engineer punya degree work with a small company who does design for O&G using AutoCad or those CAD programs (not necessarily piping), after a couple of years, he left and join this manpower company in Singapore and was sent to Nigeria ... now he's the engineering procurement manager in Total France ...

Oil price is at USD100 per barrel, Petronas and all other operators are spending money to find new oil and also to rejuvenate existing oil field. ExxonMobil is committed to invest USD4 billion in the next 10 years to rejuvenate their PM9 blocks (Seligi, Guntong, Tapis, etc). That 4 billion USd will go into subsurface studies, upgrading existing facilities and implementing new technologies.

How do I know this, I was in the team pushing Exxon to do it or we take back the fields.

That is just ExxonMobil. After 7-10 years, then you will have enough experience and skill sets to sell yourself for overseas operators (Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, Maersk, PDO Oman etc etc) where your salary package will skyrocket (tax free some more).

That is the path that a lot of people in O&G has taken. It's a path that I have taken.

My brother worked in the Auto sector, and he jumped into O&G (He had an Automotive Engineering degree some more) and he's doing fine ... another couple of years, he will have enough experience in O&G to start looking for a job overseas ...

There are a lot of jobs for chemical engineers such is in the refineries and petrochemical side of the O$G business. If you would like to venture on upstream activities, then you may want to enquire with your potential employers about the possibility of becoming a reservoir engineer. A lot of the reservoir engineers that I know comes from a chemical engineering background.

I don't see any difference between a mechanical engineer from a consulting background versus any other mechanical engineer. A lot of jobs opening now require mechanical engineer so it won't hurt to try. Again, in O&G, they would like to see you being able to work in a team environment. You'll get all the necessary exposure to what to do in O&G. Pipeline Engineers, Facilities Engineer, they all have Mechanical Engineering background.

As any new work experience, it takes some times to get used to it. My work is quite relaxed, the family has gotten used to living here. The school and education opportunity here is great, the pay is really nice and as for working with the locals, well, you'll get used to it.

I'm not sure about fresh grads working as an expats here. There have been cases where they will take some fresh grads but it is very unusual. At minimum, they will require you to have 7 years of working experience. There is no reason for them to take fresh grads (in the country I am working in anyway) since they have a lot of local graduates. The area where they lacked are skilled personnel.

Fifth year in Middle East. The family loves it .... we travel twice a year since it's 8 hours from everything.

If you're trying to get work with a big operator, then at minimum, they will require 5 years experience. If you're working with SLB/Halliburton, Roxar etc, maybe they will require 2 years experience in the O&G.

Whatever it is, it doesn't hurt to try. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. I'd say go for it.

max_cruz, we're talking about Petrophysicist here, for Geology and Geophysicist, it's a different story.

This is what I know Petronas will do with Fresh Geoscience grads, if you're a Mechanical Engineer, your GPA needs to be 3.5 if you want to get hired. If you're a Petroleum Engineer, they lower it to 3.0, if you're a Geologist/Geophysicist, as long as you have a degree, you will get an interview and most likely you will be hired. Mind you this was 5 years ago when demand for young geologist/geophysicist is at all time high. The E&P VP at that time (now the CEO of Petronas) mentioned that it's not easy to find Geologist/Geophy coz not a lot of students like to take the degree and it's 4 years of looking at rocks ... it'll drive you insane ... so if you can get through 4 years of looking at rocks, you're good to go.

Max, try and send your cv to all the big operators. As I always say in this thread, get as much experience as you can and once you get passed the 7 years experience, your Market value will skyrocket. Geology and Geophysics are really technical skills that the industry lives on so once you are considered experienced, then you really have a lot if options.

Good Luck

Kenchana is heavy on Supply vessels and fabrication work. They have a big site in Lumut IIANM. The project they got was the Bergading field (Risk Service Award), a JV with Petrofac Malaysia (Operator).

As someone mentioned previously, at the end of the day, you may want to work with an Operator as in the grand scheme of things, the Operator is the boss and all vendors will need to come to you for any projects.

Hahahahah, this is funny. It's a Geology question by the way. Are you getting this question from an interview?

Anyway, if the mountains have been eroded then, the signs of mountain building is most likely ophiolites since it's usually found in the oceanic crust that has been "uplifted" during continental collision or oceanic crust subduction under the continental crust. All this uplifting and collision are what creates the mountain ranges.

The guys who is asking you this question must be a sadistic ******* coz if I were asked this question I'd be pissed. If you're learning structural geology then this question is relevant, otherwise, very academic question and not that relevant in the O&G industry.

jamal, good answer ... nice and concise.

I got an offer from Murphy for 45K a month .... still considering it ... the tax would be 5 figures one ..... pening wooo.

They pay you big bucks, they expect you to give them back triple that amount ....... a lot of responsibility comes with the kind of salary you are getting .....

It's supply and demand I suppose. A lot of the subsurface experts are retiring. The average age of the skilled personnel in G&G, PE and Drilling is like 47-52 years old ... very close to retirement ... the industry is losing 30% of their technical workforce so not many people in this industry ... deman for the people are skyrocketing especially with Petronas really strict about Malaysianisation .... so if you have the experience and you're Malaysian, then you can command good pay from all the foreign operators in Malaysia.

Subsurface involves a lot of risk taking ... stressful job ... you need to decide where to drill for oil. Each well can cost up to USD 10-15 million average. Deepwater exploration well even more expensive (in the range of 50-60 million dollars) so ... kalau drill and get a dry hole ... sakit woooooo ... I have so many friends who is a chain smoker, cannot sleep well at night and those who sleep will dream about their well ..... so sometimes 45K also not worth it ...

That is true but some carry more responsibility than others.

As for presenting to the landlord, make sure you network with the Technical Review Committee, especially the Secretary and you should be fine.