What does a drilling engineer do?
A drilling engineer specializes in planning and overseeing a gas and oil company's drilling operations. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, coordinating with other experts and contractors, examining and evaluating the quality of drilling sites, and liaising with external parties. Furthermore, as a drilling engineer, it is essential to monitor the progress of operations and lead the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and safety regulations to maintain a safe and productive work environment.
Drilling engineer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real drilling engineer resumes:
- Manage all solids control equipment ie; mud cleaners, centrifuges, and shakers.
- Accomplish high level of safety standards and have maintained a accident and incident free career while working for Newpark.
- Manage rig move/loss circulation surface personnel logistics for maximum efficiency.
- Provide front-end engineering support including selecting and ordering long lead equipment, AFE budgeting/timing and writing detail installation procedures.
- Used different types of completion fluids (Nacl brine, Cacl2 brine, ., ect . )
- Work with water base salt polymer.
- Gas development field (H2S presence).
- Engineer water base, oil base and polymer systems.
- Create competitor database to analyze completions across the U.S. within Spotfire.
- Test drilling fluids using API standards and provide proper chemical additives.
- Drill wells with both H2S and partial losses situations at same time.
- Assist with the introduction of many new technologies to Alaska and to BP.
- Start a completion database for Spotfire to perform post job analysis and tracking.
- Maintain and service analytical equipment, centrifuges, pumps, valves, and fittings.
- Schedule vendors and materials on location to ensure no NPT and reduction of cycle times.
Drilling engineer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Drilling Engineers are proficient in Cost Estimates, Well Design, and Data Analysis. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Creativity, and Math skills.
We break down the percentage of Drilling Engineers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Cost Estimates, 9%
Completed regulatory submissions; cost estimates; evaluated service company proposals and managed procurement of drilling materials.
- Well Design, 8%
Implemented best possible HSE operations to mitigate risks and hazards, which could impact well design and integrity.
- Data Analysis, 7%
Noted problem solver Skills Used Analytical techniques, project management, data analysis, programming, client service management
- BHA, 7%
Worked with Directional providers to implement BHA design improvements for better drilling efficiency.
- Technical Support, 7%
Provide office rotational engineering and technical support for two gas development project offshore Trinidad.
- Engineering Support, 7%
Monitored daily drilling operations and provided technical and engineering support to Drilling operations.
"cost estimates," "well design," and "data analysis" are among the most common skills that drilling engineers use at work. You can find even more drilling engineer responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a drilling engineer to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "petroleum engineers must be able to compile and make sense of large amounts of technical information and data in order to ensure that facilities operate safely and effectively." Additionally, a drilling engineer resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "participate in tool failure analysis and continuous efforts to improve drilling operations reliability. "
Creativity. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling drilling engineer duties is creativity. The role rewards competence in this skill because "because each new drill site is unique and therefore presents new challenges, petroleum engineers must be able to come up with creative designs to extract oil and gas." According to a drilling engineer resume, here's how drilling engineers can utilize creativity in their job responsibilities: "inventory, test, inspect, and troubleshoot all equipment. "
Math skills. This is an important skill for drilling engineers to perform their duties. For an example of how drilling engineer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "petroleum engineers use the principles of calculus and other advanced topics in math for analysis, design, and troubleshooting in their work." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a drilling engineer: "carbonate reservoir: rebuilt porosity and permeability models with geostatistics method; matched production data for 60 wells. ".
Problem-solving skills. drilling engineer responsibilities often require "problem-solving skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "identifying problems in drilling plans is critical for petroleum engineers because these problems can be costly." This resume example shows what drilling engineers do with problem-solving skills on a typical day: "investigate and troubleshoot daily drilling related problems, find appropriate solutions and establish new procedures to prevent reoccurrence of problems. "
The three companies that hire the most drilling engineers are:
- NOV3 drilling engineers jobs
- California Resources2 drilling engineers jobs
- SM Energy2 drilling engineers jobs
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Compare different drilling engineers
Drilling engineer vs. Gas analyst
A gas analyst is faced with different responsibilities in the workplace. They are required to manage internal physical transactions with the gas management system. They may also be called upon to train new employees in GC-MS software and how to handle cylinders properly. Another duty of theirs is to analyze high-pressure cylinders of gas and check for purity using GC-MS. They may be in charge of monitoring some SCADA alarms and alerting field technicians to any problems.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a drilling engineer are more likely to require skills like "cost estimates," "well design," "bha," and "technical support." On the other hand, a job as a gas analyst requires skills like "gas supply," "quantitative analysis," "sql," and "vba." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Gas analysts earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $90,153. On the other hand, drilling engineers are paid more in the energy industry with an average salary of $124,116.The education levels that gas analysts earn slightly differ from drilling engineers. In particular, gas analysts are 3.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a drilling engineer. Additionally, they're 1.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Drilling engineer vs. Mud analysis supervisor
Each career also uses different skills, according to real drilling engineer resumes. While drilling engineer responsibilities can utilize skills like "cost estimates," "well design," "data analysis," and "bha," mud analysis supervisors use skills like "autism," "executive leadership," "financial analyses," and "applied behavior analysis."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Mud analysis supervisors tend to reach higher levels of education than drilling engineers. In fact, they're 5.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Drilling engineer vs. Reservoir engineering consultant
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from drilling engineer resumes include skills like "cost estimates," "well design," "data analysis," and "bha," whereas a reservoir engineering consultant is more likely to list skills in "eclipse," "economic analysis," "pvt," and "pta. "
Most reservoir engineering consultants achieve a higher degree level compared to drilling engineers. For example, they're 25.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 9.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Drilling engineer vs. Field operations engineer
Types of drilling engineer
Updated January 8, 2025
