Career Advice Oil and Gas Engineer

Transfer to renewables?

https://www.nesfircroft.com/blog/2020/06/how-and-why-you-can-transition-your-career-from-oil-and-gas-to-renewables

This isn't a very good or in-depth article, but it highlights that there are opportunities for oil and gas engineers in the renewable sector. Hopefully there are some opportunities where you're located.

It is not an easy transition, but there are opportunities for O&G engineers outside the petrochem industry. I know a guy who got laid off from Halliburton at the outset of the pandemic who is now moving to Denver to work for an aerospace company. A lot of non-petrochem industries are willing to give O&G folks a look because they are considered to be quality workers.

Outside of engineering, most O&G people I know have gone back to school for MBAs and either started their own businesses or are climbing the corporate ladder.

Maybe the semiconductor industry? I know they hire plenty of process engineers and pay is decent, though probably less than in oil and gas.

How is the current O&G job market? Are you worried about your near term job prospects? I've always thought that O&G was pretty hot (maybe not since COVID).

Personally I wouldn't change jobs right now unless a really good opportunity came along.

From a career standpoint I wouldn't expect O&G to dissappear overnight. You might see some decline over 30 years, but short term you're going to be more affected by the boom/bust aspect of the industry more than anything. Look at nuclear power. We haven't built any plants since the 70s? and there's still plenty of them operating. And there's no one left who knows the engineering.

The social impact issue is separate. If you don't feel like it's a job you want to do than that's probably more immediate. Honestly I still wouldn't jump into anything. Just keep any eye out for something that is really appealing to you. As long as you have a good job you can afford to be picky. As an engineer you have the aptitude to do a lot of different things and a lot will transfer to other fields. You could even go work for the government on the polocy/regulation side if you want to use your experience to directly fix any issues you see in the industry.

Cheers for the advice everyone. All good points and will look into the things mentioned.

I should've mentioned that I'm looking at jobs in Australia. There was a boom of coal seam gas jobs while I was studying but that's really dried up now and refining is pretty much on it's last legs.

It will take decades before you need to worry about changing professions. Just because the US might stop demanding gas in the near term, doesn't mean the world will. Heck, with the recent rise in oil prices due to Biden's abrupt policy changes, oil prices are soaring, which will increase demand for drilling, fracking, etc. When prices rise, things like tar sands in Alberta and Shale oil become economically viable. It will be a far longer time before batteries make more sense than natural gas turbines for power production as well. And once we do switch to electric cars, the old gas cars will end up in South America, where people will use them for another couple decades (typically old cars that are donated to charity in the US end up in Mexico). If you want to change for change sake, you could get into lithium mining and refining, or other battery technologies, copper mining (if people do switch to electric cars, the entire electrical utility infrastructure of the country will have to be redone), etc.

Maybe look into one of the big chemical companies? Gasoline and diesel may be all but gone in 30 years, but we'll still have lots of need for chemicals.

joed|rt wrote:

It will take decades before you need to worry about changing professions.

Untrue. It is true that there will still be plenty of demand for downstream products, so there will still be many chemical engineering jobs. It's also true that small drops in demand cause instability, layoffs and consolidation. Western companies and countries used to dominate high skilled segments such as chemicals, but that is becoming less true today. There is a good chance if you lose your O&G job, you will struggle to get another one and have a long periods of unemployment, with little geographic flexibility. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their O&G jobs last year and the industry only plans on hiring around half those positions back.

Prices should rise around 2025 due to underinvestment post 2015 resulting in a supply crunch. This doesn't benefit downstream as reigning and chemicals have to buy crude and gas feedstock. High prices equal low margins downstream.

It's definitely possible to last another 20-30 years, but the overall job #'s are going to be less. Downstream is probably more stable than upstream and frontier exploration. There is some interesting domain expertise you could develop in hydrogen and carbon capture that may allow a tangential pivot while staying in the industry.

bambam wrote:

I'm somewhat conflicted by what my kids will think of me contributing to polluting the world.

do your kids drive cars? ride in airplanes? use consumer good made in china transported on container ships back to the USA? do they eat meat?

if so they are contributing to polluting the world just as much as you are. you just help supply the fuel for it.

Worked in the O&G industry for over 30 years. Mostly offshore stuff in the Gulf but also onshore work in nearby Saudi, Oman, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Emirates. Done the 90 days on and 90 days off for more than I would like to admit but was able to save up and invest a lot of cash. I've never really looked at doing anything else but I would think there is some crossover to the solar and/or hydroelectric industries.