I started my career in Petronas research and was there for 7 years.

I would go for UTM. They have a more establishe PE department. As for your question regarding the undergrad degree, I would say that yes, it will be a disadvantage if you are compared with other PE graduates but it all depends on how you carry yourself in the interview. And chemistry is quite a good degree as some of the PE skills require chemistry knowledge

Same here in Aramco. We are so desperate for people right now. My dept lost 25 people to retirement and resignations, we are supposed to be at +20 this year but instead we are at -22 ...

Yes, one of the reason I am not recommending Aramco is the "downside" as you mentioned. Malaysia will be on the Sterling Payroll so you'll be getting your salary in Pound Sterling. The base salary will be protected against the USD at the date of Hire at 90% protection rate. So if you are hired for example today (GBP is at USD 1.62, then 90% of 1.62 is USD 1.46 protection rate). If the GBP goes lower than 1.46, then your salary will be protected. This is actually an upside as you will not need to worry about currency fluctuations that much and I am told that the new hire are hired at a very high base salary (which is of course causing some discontent with existing staff but that is another story altogether)

The downside is the living arrangements. The Dhahran Compound is full so most new hires now are located in the Abqaiq compound which is 70 kilometres away from Dhahran (where you will work). There is a daily transportation bus but some people may have issues with spending 1 hour each way (2 hours return) on the bus every working day.

Being far from Dhahran also is an issue because Dhahran is where everything is close by (shopping etc etc). It is basically like you living in Seremban but working in KL. Some people are okay with it because they are used to it, but some people might have an issue. It takes longer especially for your family to acclimatized to the living arrangements.

The E&P Business line is slowly relocating those in Ras Tanura (beachside compound also 75km from Dhahran) and Abqaiq to Dhahran but the process is slow and housing is not very cooperative in this area.

For those asking about Non ONG experience, most of the Malaysians here are either Geologist/RE/PE or Drilling Engineers but there are some in the Health & Safety and also a group who specializes in SAP and usually these are the skill sets that Aramco is looking at.

I have to say though, once your family is settled down in Aramco, it is bloody difficult to move. I have had several offers coming my way but my family just refused to move since they are happy here ..... sigh.

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Added on October 21, 2012, 3:22 pmPetroleum Geoscience is the study of Geology (rocks, depositional environment etc) but related to the Petroleum industry (I did pure geology in the uni which makes it harder to understand it's impact on the petroleum industry). Petroleum Geophysics is the study of Geophysics (seismic study, signal processing) bu related to the Petroleum Industry. usually if you are talking P. Geoscience, you will take a couple of Geophysics courses and vice versa. If you study P. geoscience, you will be doing Geoscience work (Field Geologist, operations etc etc) while if you did P. Geophysics, you will be concentrating mostly in either soing Seismic Data Processing work or Seismic Interpretation (Qualitative/Quantitave work)

P. Geophysics and Petrophysics are 2 totally different animal. Petrophysics involves the interpretation of wireline log data (those wireline daatsets acquired by the oil companies to determine the reservoir qualities or the presence of hydrocarbons in the wells they drilled).

All 3 skill sets are in extremely high demand by the industry.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Oct 21 2012, 03:22 PM

Wire transfer of course. I would recommend opening a USD account with the local bank and you can transfer the money in USD (most ME countries have their currency pegged to the USD) and once you see the USD appreciates, then you can transfer the USD to a RM currency account. Some of us open an offshore Cayman Island or Isle of Man (because we are paid in Sterling Pounds).

That is why if you've seen some of my post, I always advice people in the industry to network, network, network.

Naah. The operator is Lundin. Carigali only has a 25% stake which means they leave it to the JV unit to take care of the assets.

By the way, I did the study on this field before, it's not a new discovery, they must have drilled another well in the other dome. The well in the saddle was wet which reduces the estimated in-place before. I did mentioned in my report that there is opportunity on the still undrilled southern dome.

Ohh PM307 is in Trengganu by the way, it is NOT in Pahang.

Uzma has a wireline service. Quite competitive I've heard. Then again, I may be biased because the owner is a good friend of mine

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Added on November 3, 2012, 8:30 pmBecause he needs to call an election in 5 months time and because he thinks Malaysians are stupid? I dunno, there are so many reasons why he would lie to the rakyat.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Nov 3 2012, 08:30 PM

Don't quote me on this but Petronas always assign block boundaries based on state boundaries and yes, they extend the state boundaries to the international boundaries.

In any geographical mapping exercise you extend any national/state boundary parallel to the line of the established border. That is why Trengganu has quite a big offshore boundary as its border to the north with Kelantan is controlled by Besut which allows for Trengganu to extend their offshore boundary North-East towards the Thai border. The border between Trengganu and Pahang is south of the town of Chukai and if you look at the state border right below Chukai it runs almost like a straight line towards the coast. Petronas extended this straight line to create PM307, so basically PM307 is in Trengganu.

Kelantan has a good claim for its oil royalty as well because the border from Besut to Tok Bai in Thailand basically covers the entire JDA (Joint development area) with Thailand and also the PM3CAA (currently operated by Talisman) which is producing close to 50-60 thousand barrels of oil per day. The gas production in the JDA will also increase as more and more fields are brought online. Cakerawala is already producing gas that is close to 1/2 billion scf per day. Once you bring up Bergading, Ular and more of those gas fields, the Gas production will increase significantly.

What do you think would happen if the states didn't sign the agreement with Petronas? They would have been able to at minimum to negotiate with the oil companies based on the concession agreement (before the PSC system was brought on-line). So the states gave up their right to Petronas in return for 5% royalty and getting nothing out of it is a bit unfair isn't it. In any federation (similar to the US), there should be a clear demarcation between Federal and State rights, the states make the Federation and their rights should be respected.

Must be for the Berantai project.

For an intern, maybe not. You'd be shown what PsC audit does and maybe do a lot of paperwork. As I mentioned in the PM, PSC audits are the cops and they go around every quarter to all the operators offices (Shell in Miri, Exxon, Talisman etc etc) and these operators will have to open their books for the PSC audit team to review. If the team decides that some of the line items are not cost recoverable, then it's not cost recoverable. They have the big stick.

I'm working in Saudi Arabia together with some 80 Malaysians here. There's another 400 Malaysians and their extended family in the Industrial City of Jubail. As mentioned by abgkik, you need to have skills that are in demand. You need to be able to work in a team and have the right attitude and basically don't sell yourself short. Oil & Gas professionals from Malaysia are in high demand because almost all MNCs in the world (especially the middle east) knows that we Malaysians can carry our weight and then some. Malaysia boleh!

The current skills that are in high demands are those in the Subsurface skills (Geology/Geophysicist/Petroleum Engineering/Reservoir Engineering/ Production Technology/ and not to forget the most in demand of all, Drilling Engineers & Petrophysicist) followe by the surface facilities engineering.

I get calls every couple of weeks from headhunters who probably got my name from LinkedIn and also from word of mouth. The key is networking.

Most middle eastern NOCs hire expats as permanent staff (in my case it's called Indefinite Term). Some prefer contract because they get the money upfront so basically in any case you need to do your financials before accepting the job. If the company is offering 80K a month for a 2 year contract, I may not take it because it's too short and I have a lot of commitment but if they offer 120K a month for 2 years then we can talk ....

Completion usually falls under the Production Technology skill gorup but then again, different company puts it in Drilling (I know mine does) so it depends.

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Added on November 20, 2012, 8:10 pmRinggit lah ....

This post has been edited by azraeil: Nov 20 2012, 08:10 PM

Some of my colleagues have returned to Malaysia and the salary they are getting are close in terms of gross salary as compared to the one they were getting in my company. The problem most of us have is the education assistance that the company gives for our children. Once you start using the assistance (for boarding school), then it is very hard to leave as no other company in Malaysia can match the amount. I know because I have rejected Petrofac and Shell due to this reason.

Once my kids go to college, then I will most likely return to Malaysia. A friend returned and his pay package from a Malaysian Operator was close to 700K annually which is what most company are willing to pay for some of us to return to Malaysia.

Insyaallah kalau panjang umur I will return.

Some of the new ex-Petronas hire is on 6-7 years experience so not too long. When I joined, yes the 10 year cut-off is required but now since most of us Malaysians here canc arry our weight, the company has really lowered the requirement.

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Added on November 21, 2012, 12:22 pmBoth fields are okay if you want to join but I would suppose that mechanical engineering will be a bit more relevant to the O&G industry especially the upstream side (where a lot of activities are going on). Chemical engineering is also good but then again, most people when they hear CHem E, then they immediately focused on placing you on the downstream side of the business like Penapisan/Refinery PetroChem etc. So if you are aiming for the Upstream side of the business, then ME is probably a better choice

BUT, if you do Chem E, there is a chance you can be a Reservoir Engineer because I have known a lot of Chem E grads who became Reservoirn Engineers because RE deals with a lot of Chemical Engineering work as well ..... some sort of overlap exists between the two.

As for starting from a fresh grad, well it's obviously tough so you need patience and also some bit of luck. Do not underestimate the importance of networking. If you know of a conference like PGC&E (Petroleum Geology Conference & Exhibition )etc etc, go as a student delegate and talk to the players manning the booth and probably drop a business card (make your own business card lah). If you hear of any SPE conference, drop by and do the same. Collect also their business cards and a semester before you graduate strat sending those CVs to the people you've collected their business cards from. Jangan malu malu because if you don't go for it, you'll never get it (same applies for trying to get woman of course .... but I'm digressing).

Good Luck.

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Added on November 21, 2012, 12:24 pmSo what if your result is not good? Why do you say that you cannot apply to big companies. Try and become a mudlogger first and after 1-2 years that experience is a s good as gettign a Masters.

This post has been edited by azraeil: Nov 21 2012, 12:24 PM

SLB or Halliburton should have positions for mudloggers or some of the service companies. yes, just send your resume to those company with a good cover letter with your intention of becoming a mudlogger.

Good Luck.

I did my degree in th US.