I stand corrected then: OP could work in Bangkok, Lagos, or Luanda. (I hope they're making more than 100K Bt / month if living in Luanda!)

For curiosity sake, are the 6 folks you know all West African nationals?

no they are Thai, and on Expat packages, so a lot more than THB 100k/m

Won't be western expat packages though

depends what you mean by Western Expat package,

I do know one of the lads in Nigeria is pulling down close to USD 1k/day and he is doing 60 day swings

so I would say that's expat money at least

And I almost forgot; would the fact that I have tattoos be very disadvantageous for me? All of them can of course easily be covered with a long sleeve shirt and none of them are offensive in any way (if you don't have something against tattoos in general). My previous employers have had nothing against it, but they have all been Swedish and Norwegian.

Well, most O&G offshore facilities make you cover up with FR overalls so, no worries. Unless you are all tatted up on the face of course.

Southpeel: Thank you for your answers. They are very much appreciated.

I understand that the right school is important to get me anywhere in Thailand, that's why my only options have been Chula and Mahidol. Mahidol however, doesn't offer any master degrees in areas that are interesting for me. I have a foreign surname, not really sure if it is a good or a bad thing...

If you are correct about the salary 100k baht/month is fantastic news! I would have easily accepted 50k baht/month as an entry level engineer.

Sorry but I don't understand GOT (I guess it's not Game of Thrones ), but it has probably something to do with the O&G fields in Southeast Asia? Would it be a stupid decision to get your first years as a petroleum engineer in Thailand and later on advanced to the developing fields as Africa etc that you recommend? Because, like you just mentioned, the tricky part is to get into the business at first...

GOT = Gulf of Thailand

Its not stupid what your suggesting, but at the same time, honestly you have the opportunity to get your full education in Europe and start working via European companies, else where in world over Thailand, the thing you need to do is get taken on by one of the major operator's, and then a lot of doors will open up for you on the international front

Agree. Thailand has been localising for quite some time so even if you graduated from Chula, you are still not likely to be headhunted. On the bright side, its a great place to make good Thai friendships/contacts in the industry. However, be advised that in Thailand, they send their kids from Bachelor degree straight into a Masters degree with zero work experience (the students tend to be VERY immature as well). One of the good things about a western style MSc is that they usually prefer to enrol people with more than 2 years work experience and a certain level of maturity. This learning environment is preferential since you can all engage in group class assignments/discussions and can all contribute ideas from combined experience. In the case of Thailand, you will be put into a group of immature and inexperienced kids and guess who does all the work? You.

I stand corrected then: OP could work in Bangkok, Lagos, or Luanda. (I hope they're making more than 100K Bt / month if living in Luanda!)

For curiosity sake, are the 6 folks you know all West African nationals?

Luanda isn't hiring for a while. :-(

But salaries are much higher than 100K THB a month.

I stand corrected then: OP could work in Bangkok, Lagos, or Luanda. (I hope they're making more than 100K Bt / month if living in Luanda!)

For curiosity sake, are the 6 folks you know all West African nationals?

no they are Thai, and on Expat packages, so a lot more than THB 100k/m

Won't be western expat packages though

depends what you mean by Western Expat package,

I do know one of the lads in Nigeria is pulling down close to USD 1k/day and he is doing 60 day swings

so I would say that's expat money at least

Guess they couldn't get a western expat to do the job

Guess they couldn't get a western expat to do the job

Believe he got taken on,over some of the expat's who applied for the same job, fact is he is bloody good at his job and in the time I worked with him, which was few years back but he was far better than his back to back who was an expat,

Franky honestly there are some excellent Thai lads working the oil patch and they not just Thai welders who are excellent, don't fall the TV's bar stool expert opinion that all Thai's are incompetent fools they are not...