Yamaraja

Can I live in New Orleans and work as a petroleum engineer? What Companies are there? if any? I guess living in New Orleans and commuting to a helicopter to go off shore is possible right?

Johnson181

Can't really give you much detail, because I've never really looked into it myself, but I'm from New Orleans.

I can name at least a dozen people I know that live in New Orleans and work offshore as a PetE/ChemE (often in the 3-3 week schedule, or whatever it is).

So yes, it is indeed quite possible.

Montegut

Yes, you can. While our chemical plants are not in the city, you can live in NOLA or the suburbs or surrounding small towns and work in the oil business. You will likely have to travel to Houston often, and there is a good chance you'll get transferred there. Many of the big oil companies have left NOLA and moved employees to Houston. Tulane still does have chemical engineering as a major, but we also have some good state schools with excellent chem eng programs, such as UL-Lafayette and LSU. As for working on the platform on the 3-3 schedule, I know many of the laborers do that. Many of the oil field engineers I know take a helicopter to the platform or work in plants along the river, and all of them spend a lot of time in Houston. Many have been offered transfers to Houston and refused so they can stay close to family in NOLA, and they've either changed companies or worked in a satellite office in NOLA and have to travel to Houston or Singapore or Middle Eastern cities a lot. So, yes, you can live in New Orleans, but you have to be willing to travel.

noleguy33

I know Shell has their Gulf Coast headquarters there.

Montegut

There is a large building in downtown NOLA called One Shell Square. It houses a lot of Shell employees, but also, a lot of law firms. The Shell plants are in surrounding parishes, as we call them. Chevron also has offices in the NOLA area, a very nice one in Covington, known as the North Shore, where the public school system is excellent and quality of life is much better. But it does not hold the cultural appeal of NOLA and the people are the type you'd see in the Real Housewives of Orange County. Many professionals make the 90 minute commute from Covington to work in the Central Business District of NOLA, which is mainly some "skyscrapers" and abandoned buildings. But, because the courthouses are located there, you will find the majority of law firms located in that area of the city, and their clients, the oil companies, have many offices there, though very little, if any, of the "hands on" work is done there.