Interested in companies’ thought process
Depends on the job. Petroleum engineering is it’s own field. Handful of colleges in oil areas that offer the degree.
@Sportsman88 Can you be hired to extract oil with a master’s in geology?
I’m not a petroleum engineer, just have friends who are and went to a school where it was a common degree. Sort of like “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV” although you probably aren’t old enough to get that joke.
But, my understanding is the geologists are more in exploration and petroleum engineers on drilling/extraction. Someone else more qualified will come along and give a better answer but you may have to be patient with such a specific question.
Yes, oil companies hire MS geology and geophysics majors all the time. They also hire chemical engineers all the time, in some cases to do the same exact job as they hire petroleum engineers to do. The jobs that take both petroleum and chemical engineering majors (or mechanical or sometimes civil) will usually be related to either production operations or drilling/completions. Typically reservoir engineering positions do require petroleum engineering degrees and for those MS or PhD may be preferred but not required. Facilities engineering positions rarely go to people with petroleum engineering degrees; those are usually better suited for chemical, mechanical, civil, or electrical engineers. Oil companies need geologists and geophysicists, and generally do require at least a masters degree. There is very very little crossover between engineering and geology positions though (although geologists/geophysicists and engineers do work together of course).
Geologists are required for every new drill, but the new drill may be in an existing field. “Exploration” can be applied to both new developments and existing operations. Geologists are frequently embedded within the operating team, and any oil company looking to replace reserves through organic growth (so, every oil company) will have geologists attached to producing assets as well as to undeveloped areas.
My experience and knowledge source: I have a BS in Chem E and worked for a large oil company. My H is a petroleum engineer who worked for the same large oil company I did, and now works for a small independent. Even at his current company which only buys proven producing assets and does not purchase undeveloped leases for development, geologists are still getting seismic data and looking for plays in the producing fields and working with the drilling engineers to plan the well work.
@traveler98 which 3, chemical engineeer, geologist, or Petroleum engineer is the best chance getting hired by an oil Company? Or an order of the three most likely to least likely would be appreciated
@ksadowski45, all three are needed by oil companies. Because the petroleum engineering major is so very industry-specific the chance of finding a job outside the oil industry is very low, although it’s not just oil producing companies who need petroleum engineers and there’s no guarantee that just being a PE major will get you a job at an oil company (or any job at all). There are oil service companies (Baker Hughes and Halliburton to name two large ones) that aren’t considered oil companies (like Shell, ConocoPhillips or Anadarko), and then there are government agencies like the Minerals Management Service. All hire petroleum engineers. Geologists and chemical engineers could seek out the oil industry specifically but both majors have flexibility to work in different industries. Universities with strong ties to the oil and gas industry include but are not limited to UT, Texas A&M, University of Oklahoma, Penn State (mine and my husband’s alma mater), U of Tulsa, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, Colorado School of Mines, Missouri-Rolla, Stanford, and University of Louisiana Lafayette.
@traveler98 I have one last question. What are the specific differences between a geologists duties for an oil company and a chemical engineers duties for an oil company?
There’s no single “chemical engineer’s” duty description and there’s no single “geologist’s” duty description, and the career paths open to each degree will vary by company. For instance in my husband’s current company he’s an operations manager. He’s a petroleum engineer by training and background but other operations managers in his company are different types of engineers. He reports to an asset team leader who is a geologist by training; other asset team leaders in the company, with the exact same responsibilities, are various types of engineers.
Edited to add: a very general way to think of geology vs engineering is whether you enjoy trying to discern the underground structure of the petroleum formation or the equipment and processes used to get the petroleum out of the ground and out to market.
It is possible to get these jobs with only an undergrad Geology degree.
@nw2this, yes, it’s definitely possible to get a good geology job in the oil industry without a masters. It’s also possible to get good reservoir engineering jobs without an advanced degree.