Production engineer OR drilling engineer 1

[engr2GW]

Hi all,
I was hired by an independent oil and gas company 3 years ago as a facilities engineer, the company does not seem to be designed to favor facilities engineers. Most of the value and development paths favor reservoir, production, drilling, and operations engineers. I have recently developed strong affinity for production and drilling engineer. I like both, but:
1. Production engineer because it seems like the engineering function that will outlast the others mentioned about and has more variety in its jub function
2. Drilling engineer because it seems or have more of a sense of specialization to it, and that sounds like what I like, to be know for one thing and be really good at it.

If all things are equal, and both jobs are available, can you advice a 30 yr old engineer who had 30 years ahead of him on which of the two ways to go. Just from your opinion and understanding of the two engineering function.

Thank you.

As much as possible, do it right the first time...

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Which pays mare??

 

[SteelPE]

and what has better long term job prospects?

 

[zdas04]

Drilling activity level is at the mercy of the price of products. Right now the price of gas is in the toilet so no one is drilling development gas wells (they are just drilling lease-jeopardy gas wells). The price of oil is good so oil drilling is moving at a brisk pace. There is never a time that one or the other is slow and no one needs drillers.

Production Engineering is all about maximizing revenue from what you have so it is much more stable.

I found that Facilities Engineering is what yo make it. Historically Facilities Engineers do projects that were identified by others and will be operated by others as the Engineer moves on to the next project. I didn't do it that way. I integrated myself into a production team and stayed there for 13 years. It was a great job because I found my own projects, executed them myself, then operated the result. I made a great career and good money doing that. You might look into changing your job scope instead of changing jobs.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.

 

[engr2GW]

Thanks you very much zdas04. you've given me a lot to think about. It sounds like I need to continue in my facilities role, whole mingling and working with production folks, the good thing about that is that I actually work in a production field office, so I'm a lot closer to production superintendents and production foremen. I might have a title that says "facilities engineer" while carrying out job functions that sounds like "facilities and production engineer".

Thank you.

As much as possible, do it right the first time...