Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum engineers design methods for extracting oil and gas from deposits below the earth. They design equipment and processes to achieve the maximum profitable recovery of oil and gas. Because only a small proportion of oil and gas in a reservoir flows out under natural forces, petroleum engineers develop and use various enhanced recovery methods, including injecting water, chemicals, gases, or steam into an oil reservoir to force out more of the oil and doing computer-controlled drilling or fracturing to connect a larger area of a reservoir to a single well.


More Information:

• Starting Salary: $83,121
• Average Salary: $108,020
• Gender Breakdown: 75% Male / 25% Female
• Job Outlook: Petroleum engineers  are expected to have employment growth of 18 percent over the projections decade. Petroleum engineers increasingly will be needed to develop new resources, as well as new methods of extracting more from existing sources. Excellent opportunities are expected for petroleum engineers because the number of job openings is likely to exceed the relatively small number of graduates.
• Top Three Schools: 1.University of Texas--Austin 2. Stanford University 3. Texas A&M University
• Professional Societies: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration