Petroleum Engineer Student

[willizoe]

Hi,

I am a college sophmore studying petroleum engineering and would like to know the best way for me to eventually get work in Thailand or Southeast Asia. I lived in Asia for 4 years with the military and am really itching to get back over there with a well paid career. I'd love to travel all of Asia in my free time, so any kind of 3 weeks on/2 off type work would be fine with me. It also doesn't have to be in Asia. My main concern is working my ass off for a few weeks and then getting a few weeks off to travel. If it means Nigeria, Angola, Australia, etc, thats fine with me.

I'm not looking for some easy way in(most posts I searched for contained "how can I move to Thailand and make $100,000 a year with no previous offshore experience?). I'll put in as many years of grunt work needed to learn my trade. I just would like to know the right route so I can get started planning while in college.

I know very little about the industry and need all the info I can get. What is my best bet right out of college? Should I try to get a job with a Schlumberger type company and put in a few years as a field engineer? Anything you can tell me would be great.

Also, these are the disciplines myschool offers in the petroleum engineering field:

Drilling Engineering

Petroleum properties

production engineering

rock properties

transport phenomena

Which one of these do you think is the most marketable?

Being well paid in a situation where I work 3-4 weeks on with a few weeks off. What would make me most marketable to these kind of companies?

[astral]

Moved for better exposure.

The job finding forum does not allow discussion.

[gotlost]

Try... http://www.expatnetwork.com/

and http://www.rigworker.com/

[Soutpeel]

As regards working offshore in Thailand specifically, would say forget about it, you are about 10 years too late, if you still want to persue this you only option may possibly be with service providers ie the Schlumberger type companies, but their preference these days is for Thai nationals, and there are quite a lot coming out of the universities in Thailand, so wouldnt hold your breath.....you would need to be very lucky (read here...know someone who can pull strings for you)

As regards some of the countries....Nigeria (sh*thole)...Angola (sh*thole)...but better than Nigeria.....Aussie.....get your raped with the tax.

Starting off anywhere will not get you 100k/yr with no experience....bank on 3-5 years working all the sh*t jobs before you start getting towards that amount

out of the courses mentioned, following IMHO would be most marketable, Drilling Engineering or Production Engineering.

Getting in the door in the international O&G game is not easy, as the business is based on a "buddy" network.....so you need to build contacts in the business who may be able to open doors for you

[NanLaew]

If the OP can indicate nationality and where they will be graduating from, it may help with advice on internships and seasonal industry work while the degree is being earned. That's a good way to build up contacts in the industry but don't expect to be sent on some lucrative tax-free overseas assignments just yet.

Some examples; a very bright Colombian student worked with a major seismic contractor for almost 8 years, switching between well-paid offshore duties and regular office-based assignments whilst she fitted in her post-graduate studies which were well supported by her then employer. I introduced her to some people from the Norwegian state-owned oil company that extended her an internship while she did her doctorate in Scotland. Last I heard she was moving rapidly through the ranks in Stavanger and could one day be my 'boss' if our paths cross in the field. She was VERY motivated, VERY smart and as a bonus, she was an absolute stunner. The fact she married a Norwegian wasn't a bad move on her part either! Another friend a few years younger than me graduated as a PE, was part of Shell's graduate induction, quit and worked for a couple of minnows before getting together with some peers and forming his own E&P company in the Gulf of Mexico. He's well in with a major Japanese partner and is expanding into Latin America. Once again, his Peruvian wife has been a hidden asset on that expansion.

Regarding working is SE Asia, I would say that it's a relatively closed shop and as mentioned earlier, expat opportunities usually come from word of mouth and personal recommendations rather than through applying for the few advertised positions. I would say the median age of my peers would be in the fifties and having made our way to the 'top' in this neck of the woods, we are protective of what has been attained. Thailand doesn't have any volume of E&P companies but there's two hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where any networking can be focused on. I am currently based in KL and support my Client's activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. Everywhere is about 2-3 hours away by plane so it's a great home base.

One point to note is the industry's very poor record on investing in professional graduate talent, hence the vacuum between the experienced old hands of my generation and those that will hopefully take over. That's why I have pushed retirement away as there's just too much work to pass up right now. Maybe you will catch the same wave and whether you make a fortune fast and retire early of keep busy is up to you.

I also recommend joining a couple of your chosen industry's professional groups, attend training courses, seminars and conventions which all goes towards networking and marketing yourself.

Good luck!

[willizoe]

Hey thanks for your reply buddy. Yeah, the thing I've been hearing is "contacts, contacts, contacts". I'm starting to feel like that will be way more important then my G.P.A. Good to hear about the Drilling Engineering, that's the one I was most interested in.

P.S. - I would be delusional if I thought I'd make 100K in my first year, I just find it funny because those were the questions I saw when first searching the forum for petroleum engineering. I kept coming up on "hey, I wanna move to Pattaya and make a bunch of money. Do you think I could get a job on your oil rig making $80,000 a year with no previous experience or degree? I'm pretty handy, I used to fix cars in my spare time".

As regards working offshore in Thailand specifically, would say forget about it, you are about 10 years too late, if you still want to persue this you only option may possibly be with service providers ie the Schlumberger type companies, but their preference these days is for Thai nationals, and there are quite a lot coming out of the universities in Thailand, so wouldnt hold your breath.....you would need to be very lucky (read here...know someone who can pull strings for you)

As regards some of the countries....Nigeria (sh*thole)...Angola (sh*thole)...but better than Nigeria.....Aussie.....get your raped with the tax.

Starting off anywhere will not get you 100k/yr with no experience....bank on 3-5 years working all the sh*t jobs before you start getting towards that amount

out of the courses mentioned, following IMHO would be most marketable, Drilling Engineering or Production Engineering.

Getting in the door in the international O&G game is not easy, as the business is based on a "buddy" network.....so you need to build contacts in the business who may be able to open doors for you

[willizoe]

Thanks for all the info. I'll make sure to start looking into orgs and summer internships asap.

For the question in your post, I'm an American going to West Virginia University. It's not close to the gulf action like the southern schools, but cheaper as it's my home state.

Btw, I'm a little confused about one thing you said in your reply.

"One point to note is the industry's very poor record on investing in professional graduate talent" Did you mean hiring them right out of school, or investing in their advancement once hired?

If the OP can indicate nationality and where they will be graduating from, it may help with advice on internships and seasonal industry work while the degree is being earned. That's a good way to build up contacts in the industry but don't expect to be sent on some lucrative tax-free overseas assignments just yet.

Some examples; a very bright Colombian student worked with a major seismic contractor for almost 8 years, switching between well-paid offshore duties and regular office-based assignments whilst she fitted in her post-graduate studies which were well supported by her then employer. I introduced her to some people from the Norwegian state-owned oil company that extended her an internship while she did her doctorate in Scotland. Last I heard she was moving rapidly through the ranks in Stavanger and could one day be my 'boss' if our paths cross in the field. She was VERY motivated, VERY smart and as a bonus, she was an absolute stunner. The fact she married a Norwegian wasn't a bad move on her part either! Another friend a few years younger than me graduated as a PE, was part of Shell's graduate induction, quit and worked for a couple of minnows before getting together with some peers and forming his own E&P company in the Gulf of Mexico. He's well in with a major Japanese partner and is expanding into Latin America. Once again, his Peruvian wife has been a hidden asset on that expansion.

Regarding working is SE Asia, I would say that it's a relatively closed shop and as mentioned earlier, expat opportunities usually come from word of mouth and personal recommendations rather than through applying for the few advertised positions. I would say the median age of my peers would be in the fifties and having made our way to the 'top' in this neck of the woods, we are protective of what has been attained. Thailand doesn't have any volume of E&P companies but there's two hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where any networking can be focused on. I am currently based in KL and support my Client's activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. Everywhere is about 2-3 hours away by plane so it's a great home base.

One point to note is the industry's very poor record on investing in professional graduate talent, hence the vacuum between the experienced old hands of my generation and those that will hopefully take over. That's why I have pushed retirement away as there's just too much work to pass up right now. Maybe you will catch the same wave and whether you make a fortune fast and retire early of keep busy is up to you.

I also recommend joining a couple of your chosen industry's professional groups, attend training courses, seminars and conventions which all goes towards networking and marketing yourself.

Good luck!

[NanLaew]

Thanks for all the info. I'll make sure to start looking into orgs and summer internships asap.

For the question in your post, I'm an American going to West Virginia University. It's not close to the gulf action like the southern schools, but cheaper as it's my home state.

Btw, I'm a little confused about one thing you said in your reply.

"One point to note is the industry's very poor record on investing in professional graduate talent" Did you mean hiring them right out of school, or investing in their advancement once hired?

Check out the Colorado School of Mines. It's further than West VA from 'the action' but it would be safe to say that's where the core of the earth science graduates earned their laurels.

It's been a bit of both actually but there's been an active push in the past 3-4 years to redress the graduate recruitment issues. There's also the natural attrition when the undergraduate decides that investment banking or the stockmarket is the faster/better way to financial security and bales on their first choice. Most of the larger service companies have totally revisited the way they invest in their work force, hence encouragement to pursue further education while employed which wasn't a common option when I was getting itchy feet and looking for learning opportunities 15-20 years ago.

Due to the declining inductions over the past 15-20 years, there's the commensurate lack of experienced bodies in the field right now. You have the +50 year-old 'been there, done that' and the shiny new +23 year-old graduate with all the latest knowledge, gagging to play with all the latest technologies and tools but finding limited opportunities to do that. It's good that you have some focus on a chosen area of interest rather than a chop and change, scatter-gun approach. However, keep your options open and try and multi-hat. For example, the PE I mentioned in my post also has a law degree (earned before the PE degree) and was his own company's legal counsel while they came up to speed. An MBA may be common as muck but it's a relatively easy add-on if management roles start to appeal to the engineer.