A variety of companies from the petroleum industry come to Penn State to hire students for both internships and full time jobs. These companies include: Shell, Texaco, Exxon, and Mobil. In all of these cases, the individuals conducting the interviews are technical people with a great affection for their trade. Peter Flemings distributed the following information in the fall of 1995 to students and faculty at Penn State in an effort to generate more interest in the Petroleum Industry and the companies that were coming that fall to conduct interviews.
Coincident with the return to pre-boom oil prices and staffing, exploration activity has increased a small, but real amount. Companies have discovered how to make money at current oil prices by using advances in technology. Examples of those technologies include better exploration methods (particularly advances in 3-D seismic) and better drilling and completion technologies (e.g. deviated wells and fracture completions).
These three factors (pre-boom oil prices, pre-boom staffing, and increased exploration activity) have combined to create a new demand for geoscientists in the petroleum industry. I believe this is a long term trend. We will probably never return to the huge demand of the late 70's, however there will be a significant increase in long-term hiring by the petroleum industry. Also, the jobs will be much more specific and applied.
Domestic Exploitation
Demand will be for masters and doctorate level geologists/geophysicists/engineers to take part in exploration teams in the Gulf of Mexico. Emphasized skills include the ability to work with workstations, knowledge of basic geology and geophysics, and an interest in the applied search for oil and gas. The jobs are not research oriented; they are the searching for, drilling, and producing of oil.
International Exploration
A few companies are continuing to hire for positions in their international divisions. Particularly, jobs focusing on the larger-scale. This is perhaps the more traditional geologist that companies used to hire. Students who have done field work, who have some computer skills, who are interested in putting together `the big picture' are desired. Structural geologists are in big demand.
Research and Development
There are a few remaining research jobs to be filled in the petroleum industry. In particular, the Exxon Production Research Lab continues to hire a lot of Penn State geoscientists. These individuals spend some of their time on pure research and the remainder of the time on particular projects that they are asked to address by their exploration affiliates. Structural geologists and geologists cross-trained in engineering are in great demand.
Service Companies
Schlumberger and Halliburton are companies that do `service' work for the oil industry. They are essentially consultants or contractors. Wireline logging is one field that occasionally hires geologists. In general, one should have a strong background in engineering and quantitative skills. The service companies typically recruit from the main campus recruiting sites and not geosciences in particular. A second major effort is in seismic acquisition. These jobs require individuals to spend their time either at sea acquiring seismic data or in a computer `shop' processing seismic data. In general, these jobs recruit on either the undergraduate or masters level.
I would urge you to discuss careers in the petroleum industry with students at Penn State who have spent time in the industry. These include:
1) Andy Hoover
2) Anil Deshpande
3) Tucker Burkhart
4) John Hammer
Thoughts on training for the petroleum industry:
The next generation of explorationists will be comprised of individuals with a background in geology, geophysics, and fluid flow. A knowledge and comfort with computing and computing environments will be a tremendous benefit. Finally, some applied background in seismic analysis will help.