My brother worked in Proton for close to 6 years (he has an automotive engineering degree) but decided to join the O&G 3 years ago. I used my network to get him an interview and he got the job. His Cum Laude (spelling) honors helped of course.

I would think so. That's why I put a lot of emphasis on networking. You'll never know when your old schoolmate or old colleague may give you a hand. That old buddy of yours may be one of the CEOs in the future or one of the Managers and it will at least get you an interview. Your performance during the interview will then be up to you.

the O&G business is divided into 2 parts, Upstream side and Downstream side

I'm from Upstream so I may be more familiar with that side of the business.

Upstream side involves mainly the extraction of hydrocarbons from the subsurface and the supply of it from the platform to the Plant/Crude Carrier/LNG etc etc so anything that involves those items are called the Upstream side.

Refining, Petrochem, Sales and Service stations etc are the downstream side of the business.

some useful handbooks for reference.


1."General Engineering". Petroleum Engineering Handbook Vol. 1
http://www.mediafire.com/?zyywnzzmnlm

2."Drilling Engineering". Petroleum Engineering Handbook Vol. 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmgmq3mmgfy

3."Facilities and Construction Engineering". Petroleum Engineering Handbook vol. 3
http://www.mediafire.com/?5yzfx2xnlwm

4."Production Operations Engineering". Petroleum Engineering Handbook Vol. 4
http://www.mediafire.com/?z5nmzndz2mo

5."Reservoir Engineering and Petrophysics". Petroleum Engineering Handbook Vol. 5
http://www.mediafire.com/?dbe3mnwzwly

6."Emerging and Peripheral Technologies". Petroleum Engineering Handbook Vol. 6
http://www.mediafire.com/?b0ymzmto21y

7."Indexes and Standards". Petroleum Engineering Handbook vol. 7
http://www.mediafire.com/?rnoe0zdf1zd

Gender is correct.

Yes, Drilling Engineers are from the upstream. Most drilling engineers I know has a Petroleum Engineering background but some are from mechanical background as well.

Drilling engineers requires you to be at the site most of the time (but some do office work) and you need to know things about the casing system, cementing job, and reservoir pressure behaviors.

Most of the experience gained are on-the job type so maybe some other discipline may be able to join.

I suggest you join Shell MDS. its a great company to work with. get experience. you wont regret it

---

Added on December 11, 2011, 9:17 amif you happen to accept the job offer dont forget to contact2 me we go for happy hours at Bintulu~

SapuraCrest asked me to go this 15th >< so sudden lol.. i don have extra transport for me to go work, damnn..

O&amp;amp;G is an industry that really values your communication skills as you will need to work in a multi-disciplinary team. If you are a geologist, you will work with Drlling, Petrophysics etc to get your data, your interpretation of that data (your structural maps, your faults, your interpretation of where the good reservoir is located) will be used by the reservoir engineer to plan their wells, to do their business plans etc. You will need to defend your interpretation, you will need to convince your peers and superiors that the well which will cost USD10 million minimum will be a good well etc.

Networking (I think I've said this soooooo many times in this thread) is extremely important as in this industry technology is king and if there is a vendor out there who has a better technology that can save your asset team money, you need to know how to contact that vendor. The SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) are one of the most respected and (a must joined society even for geologists) active society in the O&amp;amp;G industry. Check-out their websites and join if you can.

One of the first boss I had when I joined the industry had this to say ... your university degrees sets you up for the interview but networking in this industry sets you up for your career.

Experience counts. In this industry as I mentioned before, your salary or your value to the industry increases in 5's. 5 year experience, you are valuable to outside companies (vendors etc), 10 years experience, you value increase 2 fold as you can now demand 10K USD minimum from Overseas Operators, 15 years experience, your value jumps again and once you reach 20 years, you've got mojo ... headhunters will be calling you everyday and I know of a close friend who is currently negotiating a package worth a minimum of USD600K a year (he's aiming for USD700k) with a minimum contract of 2 years (he's aiming for 4 years). That's close to 9 million ringgit for a 4 year contract.

The industry has a very long term view. It takes at least 5-6 years to develop a field that has just been discovered (i.e. if you discover the field in 2011, the first oil/gas will only be produced in 2016/2017 or maybe longer) so if you are a fresh grad, you need to have a long term view of your career as well. I'll be in my 15th year in May next year (it'll be 15 years in my CV once 2012 comes over anyway ....), I'll be happy with 6 million for a 4 year contract.

There is a big project currently being undertaken by one of the biggest oil company in Malaysia. They require a lot of experienced technical personnel and the manpower cost has shot up drastically. A good friend of mine whose company handles a lot of manpower sourcing said that the price for each new manpower contract has doubled in the last 5 years. The industry is facing severe shortage of technical personnel and with 100/barrel oil, even paying a good technical personnel USD60K per month is reasonable. His company won a couple of manpower contract before worth RM200 million for 3 years so now he says the same contract would cost the operators RM400 million.

You'd be surprised to know that O&G operators value stability more than counting pennies. The opportunity cost of not having the right personnel during a development campaign is more expensive than the manpower contract.

As for your question about sales engineer vs. sales executive, I'm not sure as I'm a technical person but I have dealt with them before, I would day that the sales engineer are the one with some engineering background that goes to the client with a proposed technology or design, the person will need to know the science/engineering behind the product he/she sells while the sales executive are the one who decides on the cost/price and the discount to be given and handle all the contracts

One of my best friend is a sales executive. He makes tons of money from the commission and his main virtue, he has a lot of network, he knows almost everybody in the industry and he is not shy in asking me for technical questions if that will improve his sales pitch. You need this kind of person as well, he is the enabler. He left his previous company to join another company and his ex-company is suffering as the company now has "no face" to represent them. The new company keeps getting contract after contract because they've dealt with my friend before, they know that he delivers in whatever he promised (or his team will).