I am looking for a course to study next year and am thinking of going further into O&G production / exploration. What is the best Uni in the UK for O&G?
Imperial College (London) and Heriot Watt University (Edinburgh) both run Petroleum Engineering courses (ie how to find oil, and how to get it out) at BSc and MSc level, that are highly respected by the industry, especially the graduate recruiters- these are the courses where the oil companies will come to you to convince you to work for them rather than the other way around. Heriott Watt has a reputation for being more drilling engineering oriented, Imperial for being more reservoir engineering oriented. Imperial has a lot more money to give away in bursaries and sponsorhip, especially for MSc students; Edinburgh is a nicer place that London. I did the MSc Pet Eng at Imperial.
Both places also run Petroleum Geology courses,(where to look for oil & how to work out where to drill) as does Aberdeen University and several others.
Heriott Watt runs an Offshore Engineering course (how to design & build a platform or a drilling rig).
Robert Gordon's University in Aberdeen has just started an MSc in Oil Field Engineering or something, which is half of a Petroleum Engineering MSc and half of an Offshore Engineering MSc. It is a new course so doesn't have a reputation with recruiters. But Robert Gordon's is ideally placed for networking (and lets face it, you'll have to live in Aberdeen when you get a job, so this way you get a few years to get used to the place....)
There's an MSc course in Subsea Engineering at Cranfield University, but it's not very well known by the oil industry recruiters.
If you want to go into engineering in the exploration & production side (rather than the earth sciences side), what I'd recommend is to do the Petroleum Engineering BSc at Imperial or Heriott Watt; the other option to consider would be to do a first degree in Engineering or Geology soemwhere and then do the Petroleum Engineering MSc at either Imperial or Heriott Watt.
I am currently doing the HW MSc by distance learning and have been very impressed with it and would recommend it to anyone. Total cost is about £5k so not cheap but you can work while you're studying.
