well if you have to work long hours until 1 am... is that showing that you are productive or efficient ?

It is SLB.u can earn USD 4900 by working as petroleum engineer / drilling engineer..
yeah try to apply at SLB lorr u will be traveling and working a lot until u forget already your mom's face and way ab ck to your hometown
good in terms of wat?if productivity and experience gain during work PETRONAS is not the best place to go.but PETRONAS is very stable company (economic term)and u can work there without any worries that the company will bancrupt or stop any workers..is up to u lorr

Without bashing too much, I find that there are parts in PETRONAS that are working professionally and diligently, ESPECIALLY those in the Petroleum Management Unit. I'm not sure if it's actually implemented, but they do claim to have a policy of kicking their lowest 5% performer during appraisal i.e. if this year's appraisal shows that the guy is in the bottom most 5% among his peers, then next year, he better not be on the list again, otherwise he's out of the company. Needless to say, they wouldn't be on the 20 most profitable company in the world, if their workforce is full of slops, especially when they don't have much oil to begin with.

Do we have to work beyond our normal work hours? Yes, sometimes. But the choice has to be rational, I mean, nobody would like to 'retire' before their retirement age . I personally do not drive my subordinates/vendors/contractors to work 60-80 hours per week as experience has shown that overworking = more errors, get sick or become less productive during normal hours = waste more time & money, even if they can be paid on unit rate.

ya... of course easy life, but if one day when you leave that company, you might have the difficulties to adapt yourself outside petronas environment... i see most of the young staffs just waste their time only... even thou got the opportunities, if i can choose from beginning again, i would like to join service company first before go in pcsb..
Now you fell proud because you can grab the chance to work in a big company with good benefit before you graduated, but one day you will envy ppl outside who earn big figure...

PMU is professional... because they get the most bonus in petronas...
but currently they removed the bell curve already, no more classification who are good and who are weak, everyone can be performer..

I reject chance to be interviewed by SLB last month becoz i already bonded with PETRONAS.i must work for 10 years with them lorr..otherwise i have to pay them back RM120,000 if i breach the contract.damnn.i love to work with service company but the situation is not allow me to do so.now im wasting my time at home before my final exam result will be announced,only after that i can report my duty at PETRONAS.after report duty,again i have to wait for them to find suitable position relating with my abaility..

seriously farizuan, u should have taken the chance to be interviewed by SLB.
It worth to break the bond if you being offered a lucrative job there.

I'm glad that I'm not petronas scholar.


Its all about how well u willing to take the challenge/risk being put in front of you.

10 yrs....
im not a scholar.... i'll cabut after get enough experience...

i don't think a company would like to pay >100k for a fresh grad, unless he/she is superb...

forrest are u working with PETRONAS now?haha.dont cabut la..PETRONAS wont accept u anymore once u cabut.btw someone says Qatar Oil will be looking for staff beginning next year(open new plant at Saudi).i dont how truth is the rumuors.but my frens who said that went to Dubai for a conference early this months,and the rumuors spread by PETRONAS staff..now hopefully PETRONAS can revices their salary.. maybe can give 5000 at least.hahaha.they also want to protect their workers from being stolen by Qatar Oil.lawan jangan tak lawan

This post has been edited by farizuan: Dec 27 2007, 05:07 AM

well let see, if u really get USD4k as starting pay.
U get personal loan from bank to pay back the Petronas convertible loan, u will be clear off the debt within one or 2 years.

Then, all the high pay salary you get will be yours.

While if you stay at Petronas, u may not able to get such offer and will work there for a total of 10 years.
Not all engineers get good offers working with Petronas.

EE grad been threw into marketing, IT/IS into human resources.
Not all able to get into PCSB.

So it does worth a try if the chance appeared.


I don't think if Petronas willing to revise their salary, their engineers will stay.
There was once in MLNG, a whole line gone in one day. All moved to middle east.
Petronas lost RM3 million/day because of that production line closed.
Offer from middle east just too good sometime.
A senior pipeline engineer just left the company and flying to dubai this weekend.

Upstream is where the money and fun is, my friend. Work hard for 15 days, then play hard for 15 days lah!

Hrm? So eager to disclose the salary level for the engineers in PETRONAS?
Btw, the offshore hardship allowance is not RM30/day, it is more than that. And all engineers are actually earning the same starting salary, no matter the discipline. Of course, there are special allowances and adjustments...

Not really. If you are looking for technical career progression, consultants/contractors/service providers provide better opportunities. In client companies, you'll mostly be bogged down by management/supervising tasks UNLESS if you make the extra effort to directly do the work yourself. Of course as a client, you just need to review and approve procedures/drawings/specs/datasheets with occasional site visit, but how to gain the knowledge and experience to be 'qualified' to review and approve them? That's where the hardworking and lazy types are sorted out..

Ah come on now, you don't have go on and praise PMU until like that. I'm beginning to suspect that you're from there.
You should spare a thought for the PCSB guys who slog it out at fabrication yards, pet. engineers who sit at their PC reading the reservoir data in the weekends, offshore guys who spent Hari Raya out in the open seas. I haven't counted the downstream guys yet. Everyone also deserves praise what.

Agreed. Best that you move on early, unless if you intend to stay and move upwards in the company.

A common scare tactic which I encountered a lot lately. True, you will probably not be able to work with PETRONAS again once you resign, but look: If you've made up your mind to leave, why think about going back? The world is big, and there are more things out there than in PETRONAS.

This post has been edited by Ezra: Dec 27 2007, 03:08 PM

One reason Petronas is filthy rich is because all oil/gas found on Malaysian soil/waters belong to them. This means that foreign oil companies who discover oil here need to pay Petronas a certain amount of the profits gathered from these oil fields. True ?

True and not true.

True = all oil/gas in malaysian soil belongs to Malaysia, and PETRONAS (specifically PMU) is the guardian of the natural resources. Thus it is required that for every barrel of oil that foreign oil companies take from us, they have to pay us back a certain amount. And let's not forget that PETRONAS is the piggybank of Malaysian government. To be honest, what happens to the money once it reaches the government's hands is another matter, but let's leave it at that.

Not true = A huge portion of PETRONAS revenue comes from overseas, not just from within Malaysia. So Malaysian oil/gas alone does not make PETRONAS rich.

all foreign oil companies have to surrender 70% of all oil and gas found in malaysia soil/water to Petronas. Then, Petronas sell our good quality crude oil to other countries and buy lower grade crude oil from middle east for domestic use. If international crude price is at USD 100 per barrel then malaysia's crude oil can sell more than that because of lower sulfur.

Can any one brief me on what position a Mechanical Engineering graduate can apply for within the services company. Most of the services company that I found need only ppl with geo physic background. Thanks

Weird. What kind of services company were you browsing through? If you're talking about geoservices and seismic surveying, then of course la they won't use Mech. Engineering grads.

Mech grads are sometimes found in (and not limited to):
Drilling/Directional Drilling
Well Testing/Control
MWD/LWD
Wireline
Commissioning
Operations
Construction
Installation

You need to look harder. Hint: if the requirements say Petro. Engineering and equivalent, then you may try your luck.

Worked for me.

so.... you are at which one? mwd or lwd
Recently i just found out my secondary school mate now working for Halliburton in their LWD team, currently at china now. He told me that about 2 years back when i still dont know what is that company about.

I'm curious to know that MWD engineer is from mech. engineering background or some other engineering field? Do they need to attend certain course or must have certain certificate to be able to do that job?

Ezra looks like u r already experience in this field

Well, if it's Halliburton, you've missed the boat. They were recruiting a month or two ago, for MWD/LWD Field Engineers. Requirements include a degree in Geophysics or Petro Engineering and equivalent. (Hint, hint) And Baker Hughes was recruiting too, on the same day in the same Classifieds.

I'm not too sure abut the special skills etc., but training is usually provided.

And your point is?

I'm not yet at the level where I can call myself experienced, so I'm just sharing what I know. What I can tell lah, of course.

This post has been edited by Ezra: Dec 29 2007, 06:27 PM

Its a great dude!!..fresh grad like me always need experience people like u to guide me in this career..thanks for help and information

Hehe, thanks for the info dude, cuz most of the service company i found doing seismic stuff, no idea where to find those u listed which is operate in malaysia. hehe thanks again