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What is a petroleum engineer and how to become one
Petroleum engineers help find oil and gas for the country's energy needs. They design and develop methods for extracting oil and gas from deposits below the Earth's surface. They also find new ways, as opposed to old ones, in the extraction process. Most of the petroleum engineers work for oil companies, while others work at universities or research facilities.
Their key responsibilities include prospecting sites and making recommendations based on cost, effort, and feasibility of retrieving the product from where it was discovered. Another task is to design the drilling, pumping, prospecting, and storage equipment that gets the job done.
These people often work in research and development facilities or colleges, universities, and trade schools. Educational requirements include a bachelor's degree in engineering, preferably petroleum engineering. However, a degree in mechanical or chemical engineering may suffice as well.
The average annual salary for holding this position is $106,452 a year. The career is likely to grow 3% in the years to come.
What general advice would you give to a petroleum engineer?
Ahmed Temani
Senior Instructor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Avg. Salary $99,505
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 8%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%
Asian 17.20%
Black or African American 4.16%
Hispanic or Latino 10.37%
Unknown 4.70%
White 63.29%
Genderfemale 11.92%
male 88.08%
Age - 42American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 42Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is advanced
7 - challenging
Work life balance is fair
6.4 - fair
Petroleum engineer career paths
Key steps to become a petroleum engineer
Explore petroleum engineer education requirements
Start to develop specific petroleum engineer skills
Skills Percentages Reservoir Engineering 13.63% Eclipse 10.28% Production Engineering 9.17% Business Development 7.00% Petrel 5.89% Complete relevant petroleum engineer training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New petroleum engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a petroleum engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real petroleum engineer resumes.Research petroleum engineer duties and responsibilities
- Manage development and production on several large, fast-track projects including waterfloods, a steamflood, and CO2 EOR.
- Develop and manage a Spotfire production dashboard for cross-divisional consumption and reporting.
- Design and approve SCADA system for offshore platforms.
- Supervise well stimulation procedures to improve CO2 injector wells.
Prepare your petroleum engineer resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your petroleum engineer resume.
You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a petroleum engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
Choose from 10+ customizable petroleum engineer resume templates
Build a professional petroleum engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your petroleum engineer resume.
Apply for petroleum engineer jobs
Now it's time to start searching for a petroleum engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
How did you land your first petroleum engineer job
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Average petroleum engineer salary
The average petroleum engineer salary in the United States is $99,505 per year or $48 per hour. Petroleum engineer salaries range between $65,000 and $150,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do petroleum engineers rate their job?
Petroleum engineer reviews
Basically its my passion ,and most likely work of petroleum engineers is well controlling
Over shift
Undone job, when we're unable to discover certain fault on time.
Petroleum engineer FAQs
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Updated January 8, 2025
