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45 comments on The Big Crew Change: Turnover in the Oil Workforce
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45 comments on The Big Crew Change: Turnover in the Oil Workforce
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I don't know what to make of it. I believe that of the oil depletion (hobbyist?) analysts here on TOD, we have people like Khebab who is a DSP engineer, and Stuart who is CompSci whiz. At least I think that's their background (I know mine is EE). So where are the Petroleum Engineers with a deep background and appreciation of oil depletion on this site? Is WestTexas a Petroleum Engineer? I remember when I was deciding on my major and ChemEng and Petroleum Engineering had the highest starting salaries. My school had the #1 ranked ChemE department as I recall, and I knew their curriculum fairly well from hanging around and tutoring with classmates.
In any case, it's kind of like if we were discussing how a microprocessor works and not having any digital logic design engineers around correcting us. You would think that more people that have devoted their careers to a narrow topic such as Petroleum Engineering would flock here. Or perhaps they are sick of doing it day-in, day-out and don't have the energy to educate us newbies.
I know the Petroleum Engineers who understand depletion are out there, like this commenter named ReserveGrowthRulz over at peakoil.com. And RockDoc who is a PhD Geologist also at peakoil.com.
Or are the people going for Petroleum Engineering degrees only in it for the money? Could they care less about how the dynamics of oil consumption plays out as long as they get a paycheck? I happened to go for an advanced degree and have an interest in challenging research topics. It boggles my mind sometimes how us "amateurs" do a better job of at least exercising our brains than the professionals out there.
I hope I don't offend anyone too much; remember my analogy to other technical areas where you can get creamed by not knowing your academic learnin'
WHT- you hit the nail on the head, at least in my industry. I am a facilities maint mechanic/stationary Eng, and the new kids comming in "don't give a f..."
Thats what they say.
They seem to not care or are not curious as to thier surroundings, what happens when this is done, or simply, explore the mechanized department. Personally I find every day interesting in my world at work, trying to push the machineries limits and still maintain order. I know more than the lab when it comes to oil filtration and water/oil separation than they do! Why?, because I try and understand why and how when something doesn't work. If I don't I look it up on the net and watch where I get my answer from.
This is a very good article on E & P times ahead! SLB knows as they studied the SPE guys, so it will be interesting as time goes on.
Oilcan
O.C.
Kudos to your commitment. I am fortunate where I work that some of the fresh grads are highly motivated and surprise a lot of us with their enthusiasm.
Thinking about this some more, I also have to think that BigOil companies don't necessarily condone their engineers venturing out and potentially bad-mouthing internal operations. I imagine a lot of the employees just as soom zip their lip and put the nose to the grindstone.
I think that most of the engineering degrees are thought today as specializing courses with a very narrow focus. That's why you have so many different engineering degrees out there, whereas 50 years ago you had just 3 or 4 (mechanics, civil, chemical).
People today are not taught to think outside the box, to look at other science fields parallel to theirs. Like so many times commented here, PO requires some understanding in several different fields from mathematics to sociology, from geology to politics.
On a personal basis I find oil depletion research pushing especially my knowledge on mathematics, and not so on geology or petroleum engineering. BTW my base formation is on Information Systems and Programming.
Hi Luis (no accents on this keyboard),
I think that most of the engineering degrees are thought today as specializing courses with a very narrow focus
American university education has always been broad and time con$uming, of course, but even in the UK now an engineering student would study a broad core curriculum for the first two years (of four for a BSc or BEng, or five for an MEng). This would include...
Then they would spend their final two years learning about petroleum engineering, with that lot as a foundation. The same would be true for an aeronautical engineer, say, or a nuclear engineer. Engineering students work just as hard as medical students, and by the time they graduate they know a lot more about a lot more than the average humanities scum.
"average humanities scum"
And who would that be?
I am an just an electronic engineer, but if I'm not a petroleum engineer, does that make me just an average humanite scum?
Not at all old chap - that was just for humorous effect.
Well, I'm probably as much a heavy upstream techno-geek as anyone on TOD, and a pretty frequent commenter (not up there with the Gods Of TOD though).
are the people going for Petroleum Engineering degrees only in it for the money?
Well, the money ain't bad, but I decided to get into the oil business after reading "Jem" by Frederick Pohl. Peak oil and overpopulation forces a drastic realignment of world power blocs...
I just wanted to live inside a Science Fiction novel, and so far I haven't been disappointed. It's been a long, strange trip, and I think it's just getting to the good bit. Here we go, eh?
Could they care less about how the dynamics of oil consumption plays out as long as they get a paycheck?
From the conversations I've had, I would say that oilies are about as likely or unlikely to care about PO as anyone else. Strange, but there it is. Most of the kids on the streets throwing Molotovs when Thatch was dismantling the British coal industry in the 1980s probably weren't pitmen. And of course we all want to get to pension vesting day with our benefits intact. Does that make us evil or stupid?