Did anyone watch the CBS Sunday Morning broadcast today? The lead story was the impact of sub-$30 a barrel petroleum. Lots of re-possessed homes and cars in West Texas and bad times in North Dakota as well. Every economic action has a cost. Right now the oil companies and related services have no need for a full workforce.
No. Petroleum is too niche of a major. You don’t want to have a job with poor job security and petroleum engineering is GREATLY dictated by the economy of the Oil market. As you can tell right now and in the past year, the oil market has tanked so the industry has seen many lay offs. Choose Chemical Engineering instead or even Civil. The Oil Industry is filled with Chemical Engineering majors that are capable of going into Petroleum Engineering. Civil/Environmental is also the next best in my opinion.
Question, if I had a good GPA (say 3.6), undergrad research experience, and a BS in mechanical engineering with a minor in petroleum from Texas A&M, would I have a decent chance at getting a petroleum engineering job?
what about if the BS in Mech was a BS in Civil?
Look, here is how it works: oil price is critical to getting a job and keeping one later in your career. If a young professional gets hired it is not as likely that they will be fired until about 5-10 years post graduation (it does happen though).
The best petroleum engineers have a strong fundamental knowledge of engineering first. I have noticed that mechanical engineers tend to work really well here. Electrical engineers actually work better in geophysics and chemical engineers tend to get pushed into the downstream. If you want upstream (and the best chance for a job) take mechanical engineering with a >3.0 GPA (minimum), minor in geology, and go to an “oil school.” You will find that really good engineers tend to stay even with low oil prices. Of course, the same is generally true for geologists and geophysicists as well.
This is the best time to get into the oil related majors, because the oil price will have somewhat recovered by the time you are finished. People are scared to go into these majors right now, and that will mean when the prices come back the few who are there will get more money starting out.
Does it matter what university you graduate from, as most universities within california are extremely expensive 40k or more in tuition, thats without including the fact that the acceptance rate is low, thus i feel more inclined to look theother way and choose a university that wont be a heavy burden upon my finances. my family is not rich neither am i. So would it affect me, and my chances of obtaining a job as a petro engineer in a competitive company if i graduated from an unknown, not very popular but nontheless acreditied university with a good gpa and all the requirements necessary for the job. If so then i shall attempt and try my hardest to get into usc or standford as ilive in california
i am a high school student in kenya aspiring to do petro engineering though i came across some papers that showed that for someone to do petro engineering you must have done geography and in my school you are only allowed to either do geo or physics so i opted for physics and religion edication is compulsory so i do christian religion education as the humanit or the group 3subject
.now i was asking is it possible to do petro engineering without having done geo?(kindly reply asap coz am really caught up in btwn)
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i am a high school student in kenya aspiring to do petro engineering
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Do you get the same news in Kenya? This is a very risky industry choice now.
FYI
Global oil and gas job losses: 350,000 and counting
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2016/05/12/Global-oil-and-gas-job-losses-350000-and-counting/2101463080534/
Oil prices stuck: Goldman
Bad news for struggling oil majors, the US bank thinks these low levels are here to stay.
https://news.markets/commodities/oil-prices-stuck-goldman-23016/
My advice is to never get into any career that is dependent upon the price of a commodity (oil, gold, copper, silver, etc.) because commodity prices can crash or be manipulated by unscrupulous players in the market and there goes the industry.