What does a petroleum engineer do?
A petroleum engineer is responsible for developing safe and efficient extracting procedures of drilling oil and gas from the underground surface. Petroleum engineers inspect the safety and stability of tools and equipment before and after every operation, conducting preventive maintenance with the machinery for its optimal performance. They also evaluate the specifications and measurements of the location by studying blueprints and analyzing statistical surveys. A petroleum engineer must have excellent analytical and organizational skills, especially when implementing drilling operations and resolving inconsistencies and equipment failures.
Petroleum engineer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real petroleum engineer resumes:
- 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.
- Improve the operation of a facility's HVAC system.
- Direct the improvements and repairs need for proper operation of the HVAC system.
- Assist EOR department in identifying the applications of new EOR technologies for existing fields.
- Build AFE's and procedural write up for all well work overs and new drills.
- Coordinate and participate in Subcom/Tecom work program/budget review of PSC companies to monitor their performance.
- Conduct periodic pressure surveys to maintain miscible pressure and logging programs to track reservoir CO2 movement.
- Involve in various roles ranging from geotechnical designer, estimator, field engineer, and foreman.
- Prepare AFE's, procedures, and results on all projects present to the board of directors.
- Identify drilling walking tendencies in lateral sections of wells and assess the efficacy of various BHA configurations.
- Drill vertical, horizontal and multi-lateral wells, as well as ran the first expandable casing in Saudi Arabia.
- Work span both land and offshore drill wells with a focus on deep-water, extend reach drilling (ERD) projects.
Petroleum engineer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Petroleum Engineers are proficient in Reservoir Engineering, Eclipse, and Production Engineering. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Creativity, and Math skills.
We break down the percentage of Petroleum Engineers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Reservoir Engineering, 14%
Worked in production and reservoir engineering positions in Oklahoma City and Midland District offices and in Mid-Continent Division office.
- Eclipse, 10%
Simulated flow efficiency in hydraulic/natural fractures using dual porosity/permeability models in Eclipse.
- Production Engineering, 9%
Specialized in Production Engineering and provided engineering support to field operations.
- Business Development, 7%
Performed other business development and projects for small consulting firm as requested.
- Petrel, 6%
Well Path Design Petrel 2009.1 Worked with Client to improve accuracy of imported of trajectories from 3rd party software.
- AFE, 5%
Managed, control and forecast the budget of 15 Authorization for Expenditures(AFE), reducing budget overages.
"reservoir engineering," "eclipse," and "production engineering" are among the most common skills that petroleum engineers use at work. You can find even more petroleum engineer responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a petroleum 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 petroleum engineer resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "used decline curve analysis of new completion design to justify increasing reserve base by 20% with reserve auditors. "
Creativity. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling petroleum 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 petroleum engineer resume, here's how petroleum engineers can utilize creativity in their job responsibilities: "analyzed non-flowing / low producing wells on monthly basis and planned workover jobs to reduce wellwork inventory. "
Math skills. petroleum engineers are also known for math skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to petroleum engineer responsibilities, because "petroleum engineers use the principles of calculus and other advanced topics in math for analysis, design, and troubleshooting in their work." A petroleum engineer resume example shows how math skills is used in the workplace: "carbonate reservoir: rebuilt porosity and permeability models with geostatistics method; matched production data for 60 wells. "
Problem-solving skills. A big part of what petroleum engineers do relies on "problem-solving skills." You can see how essential it is to petroleum engineer responsibilities because "identifying problems in drilling plans is critical for petroleum engineers because these problems can be costly." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical petroleum engineer tasks: "analyzed reservoir model and simulation output for co2-enhanced oil recovery in cmg gem and provided optimization solutions to improve co2 utilization. "
The three companies that hire the most petroleum engineers are:
- The Independent Traveler3 petroleum engineers jobs
- Aramco Services Company3 petroleum engineers jobs
- Morgan Stanley2 petroleum engineers jobs
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Compare different petroleum engineers
Petroleum 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.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, petroleum engineer responsibilities require skills like "reservoir engineering," "eclipse," "production engineering," and "business development." Meanwhile a typical gas analyst has skills in areas such as "gas supply," "quantitative analysis," "sql," and "vba." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
On average, gas analysts reach lower levels of education than petroleum engineers. Gas analysts are 6.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Petroleum engineer vs. Mud analysis supervisor
A specialist field engineer works in construction areas or factories. They conduct on-site research, diagnose machinery problems, and make repairs. They also install new systems as necessary. They prepare purchase agreements, confidentiality agreements, and reports.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real petroleum engineer resumes. While petroleum engineer responsibilities can utilize skills like "reservoir engineering," "oil gas," "eclipse," and "production engineering," 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 similar levels of education than petroleum engineers. In fact, they're 2.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for petroleum engineers in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Galen Duree
Head of the Department of Physics and Optical Engineering and Professor, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Petroleum engineer vs. Field operations engineer
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a petroleum engineer is likely to be skilled in "reservoir engineering," "oil gas," "eclipse," and "production engineering," while a typical field operations engineer is skilled in "rf," "switches," "test equipment," and "routers."
When it comes to education, field operations engineers tend to earn lower degree levels compared to petroleum engineers. In fact, they're 6.8% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Petroleum engineer vs. Specialist field engineer
Types of petroleum engineer
Updated January 8, 2025
