Petroleum and petroleum products are valuable for any country. Shortage of petroleum could make industries, automobiles and households come to standstill and they are dependent on petroleum in some way or other. There is a need to find more petroleum reservoirs to meet the growing demand. This has resulted in a huge demand for professionally trained personnel to meet challenge.
Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline which is concerned with subsurface activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. It is a method of finding and distillating petroleum oil or natural gas from the earth and turning it into usable fuel.
Petroleum engineer are those people who perform this work by using hi-tech equipment and computers. The study covers a wide range of topics including economics, geology, geochemistry, geomechanics, geophysics , oil drilling, geopolitics, knowledge management, seismology, reservoir development and pipelines etc.
Petroleum engineers are employed in jobs which are mainly concentrated in oil and gas extraction, professional, scientific and technical services and petroleum refining. Major oil corporations, both central and state; and innumerable small and independent oil exploration, production and service companies are the employers for this profession.
They may also work for companies that produce drilling equipment, supplies and refining processes. Apart from opting for professional career, one can also do research work for further development of the field. He/She may join research labs as scientists or research fellow to carry out the R&D processes.
There are strong international travel opportunities for petroleum engineers, as it is very much a global business. Many companies have offices and sites in multiple countries and transfers are common.
Top 10 colleges in this field are-
1. Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Mumbai
2. Indian School of Mines University(ISM), Dhanbad
3. University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun
4. Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar
5. Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Pune
6. M. S Engineering College, Bangalore
7. L.D College Of Engineering, Ahmedabad
8. G.H Patel College Of Engineering, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat
9. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), UttarPradesh
10. Universities of Petroleum and Energy Studies(UPES), Dehradun
Petroleum engineers are among the highest paid professionals in recent times. The reason for the high remuneration is due to relatively low number of qualified workers in industry.
In India Petroleum are paid monthly salary between Rs25,000 and 40,000 apart from other benefits.
The average starting salary of petroleum engineers in developed countries is about $50,000 per annum.
Petroleum engineering, being rare field of engineering study, offers quite good opportunities to the graduate. Freshers may find ample scope in public undertakings as well as in corporate sector that deal with petroleum exploration and extraction.
One who has professional degree in petroleum technology under one’s belt will find employment opportunities in government undertakings like Indian Oil, Oil India limited, HPCL,ONGC etc.
Job opportunities are also available at petroleum producing companies, well- logging companies, and consulting engineering companies. Other activities include management of material resource and contractor relationships and also supervising drilling personnel.
Despite the low number of potential job openings for petroleum engineers the field is always in short supply of qualified entry level professionals. The world continues to demand safe, affordable energy resources and that will always make a degree in petroleum engineering a valuable investment.
For Bachelor Degree Courses :
For Petroleum Engineering the candidate must have minimum +2 qualification in science stream with physics, chemistry, maths. The duration of this course is 4 years.
For Master Degree Courses :
For pursuing masters i.e. Mtech in Petroleum engineering, one must complete Btech/BE in chemical or petroleum engineering. Those who have completed M.Sc. in Chemistry are also eligible to pursue a M.Tech degree in Petroleum Engineering. the span of this course is 2 years.
For Others :
One can also pursue PhD program after completing post-graduation studies. The research career is tough but rewarding.
