In the future they will be a shortage. Most o&g companies do hunt for excellent petroleum undergrad, i have a senior who is sponsored by Petronas BUT he is also being sponsored by another local aussie o&g company. Another fact is that last year almost all final year petroleum engineering students in my uni managed to secure employment before graduating.
I can confirm that most o&g companies do retrain other engineering-dicipline graduates to become a petroleum engineer since not a lot of petroleum engineers around now.
And the engineer's population in the o&g industry is greying at the moment so expect alot of them to retire in the next decades.
Now if nothing bad happens e.g new source of energy is discovered, government regulation due to global warming and etc, i'm sure after this financial crisis is over, oil price will moved upwards and companies will invest more and need more qualified/experienced engineers.

Hey our price is among the lowest in the world. But in comparison to our take-home pay then it's another matter altogether.
Saudi's cheap petrol price is not sustainable in the long run, they are facing a huge problem in a few years time, it is no secret that a few years back Saudi can managed to sustain short term world oil demand by increasing output but now they are flat out producing within OPEC quota.
What many people don't realised is that future demand for energy primary for oil will probably come from the Middle East region e.g Saudi.
I doubt the Saudis will export more oil and instead will probably support/expand local demand due to political/social reasons.


No mate, its,

1.Russia
2.Saudi
3.USA, many people don't realised that the US does have a significant oil output ONLY that it needs more than it produced, if Iran get its act together and have access to current and open technologies then they might even be or comparable to Saudi in terms of production.

Saudi comes to prominent in terms of oil production because they export the bulk of their production for the world's consumption, which will decrease over time due to rising local demand and most major fields which are among the biggest in the world are almost or already in peak productions UNLESS they discovered some big fields in the future.

Hey guys i think we should keep the thread objectively towards Oil & Gas Career.
Any further discussion then please discuss it here.

This post has been edited by december88: Nov 1 2009, 11:39 AM

Sour=more sulphur
sweet=less sulphur so happen our oil Tapis is among the best in the world in terms of low sulphur content which is also easy to refine as fuel.
We export to other countries since they have tougher and tighter fuel and environmental regulations especially for diesel.


Deep water exploration is a promising future and it is possible just look at Brazil, they made numerous discoveries this past years and more investment is coming, i would not be surprised if Brazil will be an important oil exporting country soon.
In 1960s nobody believe offshore exploration and production was feasible, but now it is an important aspect of the petroleum business.
Any i always believe that we need oil now in order to get and obtain renewable energies in the future, just as we used coal to power the industrial age.
Just like what Ahmed Zaki Yamani (Former Saudi Oil Minister) ones said

Haha don't worry have future for us pet. engineers. I'm abt to finish my 2nd year now.
My advise be active in SPE, UTM in my opinion have a SPE student chapter just get involved there and if your chapter is really active in recruiting industrial guest speakers then i suggest you attend in order to get an insight into the industry. I learned a lot from these guest speakers who give you tips and also what the industry is currently facing now and also in the future, and also free BBQs all year round.
As you come across a lot of professionals in the o&g industry you might heard how connection and networking is an important aspect of the industry so yes start networking asap.
Btw carbon sequestration and geothermal industry also need petroleum engineers, so don't worry!
Oil finished still have gas(huge potential). And also oil shale and oil sand are huge prospect for the industry they might be exploited better in the future as technologies improves as was the case when people doubted about offshore exploration potential but now it's an important source for hydrocarbons.
Basically this is what i gather from my seniors:
Drilling - Mechanical Engineers(usually)
Reservoir -Petroleum Engineers(mostly)
Production - Chemical Engineers.(usually)

But you can still go for drilling and production, no problem with that, is just that we mainly concentrate on reservoir and production and briefly in drilling. If you still can't decide then apply for graduate position(duration 3-5 years) mostly offered by big o&g companies, very competitive selection process and also you can gain experience in each 3 streams and by then you can opt to choose which one you enjoy the most. If you want to work in office then go for reservoir engineering, money is really good and close to civilization but you have to have a good and comprehensive insight in geology and thermo-fluids in order to do reservoir fluids modeling, and you will be working closely with the geologists. Btw another problem that many graduates and undergrads faced is which part of the upstream business to go with mainly operator or service companies. Anyway have fun! Probably as you go deeper into the program you will start to enjoy the course as i am currently too.

No, in fact most petroleum engineers will work as reservoir engineers where you will work in office and do reservoir (dynamic) modeling, very exciting job if you like to work with computers and modeling fluid flow through a computer modeling software.
Anyway if you do petroleum engineering you have a wider selection of upstream career to choose from.

*get your hands dirty will probably be your lab work especially if you do drilling engineering course where you will handle awful lot of drilling muds.

This post has been edited by december88: Mar 5 2010, 05:52 PM

Very limited jobs in Malaysia.
You have to work overseas cause most of the big mines and upcoming ones are found overseas anyway e.g South Americas, Australia and etc.
Where are you planning to study mining engineering? In Australia the demand for mining engineers are strong and 2 of the biggest mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto have HQ in Australia.

Mining engineering prospect is actually better than petroleum if you asked me. But of course both resources are inter connected.
Petroleum engineering is already a specific job but for mining the modus operation is the same only the type of exploitation that differs.
Btw BHP also have a petroleum business albeit they prefer to joint venture with other operators such as Exxon and Shell.
If you still in doubt then i suggest you take civil, chemical or mechanical, at least these jobs especially mechanical a lot of jobs prospects in many industries.

For maths grad to go to engineering would depends on what assignment you get from the company, usually you will be assigned with the things that are related to what you know. But it is possible to jump to engineering if you have the opportunity.
I know geologists( good in maths) work as engineers as well ones they progress through the career ladder, and have proven that they can be and progress in an engineering role.
For maths grad, try to aim for reservoir modelling, heaps of maths especially geostats, and statistics involved in modelling.