Career Reserch Project & presentation

Career Name: Petroleum Engineer

1. Education required and or recommendations: Bachelors degree or a 5 year program in

chemical engineering. High school courses to take include Pre-calculus, chemistry and
physics.

1. Suggested Post-Secondary Institutions: University of Alberta, Memorial University,

Dalhousie University, University of Regina, University of Calgary and Northern College of
the Atlantic

1. Cost of training in Canadian $ (full program cost for all years): 34,692

1. Salary range: $73,000-$208,000

 Job description: Design equipment to extract oil and gas in the most profitable way.
Develop ways to inject water, chemicals, gases, or steam into an oil reserve to force out
more of the oil. Develop plans to drill in oil and gas fields, and then to recover the oil and
gas. Make sure that wells, well testing, and well surveys are completed and evaluated. Use
computer-controlled drilling or fracturing to connect a larger area of an oil and gas deposit
to a single well. Make sure that oil field equipment is installed, operated, and maintained
properly

1. Number or people employed in this occupation (indicate whether the number refers to BC
or Canada) BC or Canada (circle one) There are over 20,000 Petroleum Engineers
working in Canada

1. Employment prospects: Employment will grow 15% from 2016 to 2026 faster than
other occupation averages. This will only create 5,100 jobs though, due to it being a small
field.

1. Related Jobs (list at least 2):

 Chemical Engineer
 Power Engineering

1. Skills or characteristics required: Technical, Teamwork, Problem Solving, Numerical and

the ability to work under pressure.

1. Disadvantages of occupation: Causes pollution and fumes and be harmful to health.

1. Describe how your values, skills and interests relate to this career option: I am a very
creative problem solver and feel I can make the extraction of oil more efficient.

1. What courses and grades are needed to enter this occupation? Pre-calculus 12 with a B,
and physics and chemistry 12 with C+

Working conditions: Petroleum engineers generally work in offices or in research

laboratories. However, they also must spend time at drilling sites, often for long periods
of time. This means they must travel, sometimes with little notice.

Typical hours of work: Petroleum engineers typically work regular full-time schedules.
However, some work as many as 50 or 60 hours per week when traveling to and from
drilling sites to help in their operation or respond to problems when they arise. When
they are at a drilling site, it is common for these engineers to work in a rotation: on duty
for 84 hours and then off duty for 84 hours.

1. Describe what has influenced your choice of this occupation: The researching I have done
on my own time into this subject is what has influenced me.

1. What are the future trends of this occupation: The occupation will continue to grow, but
some innovation will be needed as gas prices go up companies will need to start drilling
deeper.

1. Go to Work BC Website (http://www.workbc.ca/) and Education Planner

(https://www.educationplannerbc.ca/) list 2 points of information you felt were
important and were not covered.
1. You can still become a petroleum engineer without only going into Petroleum
Engineering exactly. Other types of engineering can lead to you becoming a petroleum
engineer as well.
2. There are 24 institutions in British Columbia where you can go to start your petroleum
engineering career.