This short article is written as a guide for final year secondary and 100 Level PE students in Nigeria who want to be Petroleum Engineers and work for an Exploration and Production companies in life. WRITTEN FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!

A lot of science students ignorantly joined friends/ are wrongly advised to study Petroleum Engineering as first degree in the university and end up regretting all their lives after school. Frankly speaking, the only sector where a petroleum engineer can work and be fulfilled career-wise is in the oil & gas sector. Unfortunately for the PEs, other engineering functions such as Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical e.t.c have equal or more opportunities in the oil & gas sectors.

Most Oil companies are not really interested in your repertoir of knowledge as a fresh graduate, they are interested in any relevant candidates' ability to learn new knowledge which any true engineering graduate from reputable Nigerian universities with 2.2 and above can do conveniently.

As against recent popular thinking, starting your own company is not as easy as people think. Oil business (Upstream $ Downstream) is a capital intensive business which requires a lot of work experience and "connections" to start up in NIgeria. On cost for example, an average offshore well may cost as high as $50,000,000 (9.2 billion Naira)- this excludes cost of other wells, pipelines, platform, licence, royalties, taxes e.t.c.

Things you need to know as a Prospective Petroleum Engineering Student

1. You need a 2:1 or First Class grades to work as a regular employee in the Exploration and Production companies (SHELL, Total, Chevron, e.t.c) in Nigeria as at today.

2. It's sometimes better to have a 2:1 in the Sciences (Physics, Geology, Mathematics e.t.c) than have a 2:2 or third class in PE in Nigeria.

3. You must be ready to write a lot of aptitude and scholarship tests.

4. You can gain employment easily without "connection" during NYSC Services Year with a 2:1 or first Class depending on job availability.

5. You must be ready to learn other vocations as a backup to your grade.

6. As a Fresh PE with an E&P Company in Nigeria, you will probably earn 3-4 times more than 95% of you friends in other Professions.

7. Using connections to get an engineering job with an E&P as a fresh graduate is not common - Engineers are the cores of this business and the best are usually needed for the continuity of business.

What attributes do you need to do well in school as PE student?

1. Determination to succeed: self motivation

2. Sincerity with your own ability( you can cross to other departments after 1st year result)

3. Dedication to school work - lots of TDBs & MTNs

4. Use relevant textbooks, JPT and SPE papers

5. Join SPE and participate wisely

6. Prayers

NOTE

1. Having a good grade alone does not guarantee you a job in an E&P company.

2. Oil companies recruit only if there are relevant openings for the PEs.

3. Only the best of the best candidates are usually employed in the long run - over 20,000 qualified candidates may compete for 5 job positions.


...If you still wanna be a petroleum engineer, wish you all the best.

Sogah.

Abbrv.
PE - Petroleum Engineer
SPE - Society of Petroleum Engineers
JPT - Journal of Petroleum Technology
TDB - till day break ( studying all night)
MTN - morning till night ( studying during the day)
E&P - Exploration and Production (Joint owners of oil blocks)

bro don't be deceived most of these jobs you think are meant for PE graduate are being taken by other engineering discipline mostly (chemical, mech) on a daily basis and it leave the PE guys jobless.I actually took my time to broswe through various profile on LinkedIn and most of the guys didn't even study PE at Ist degree.

Good point.

I stated this in the second Paragraph but that does not mean the end of the road for PEs.

Some companies prefer PEs for some job functions, reservoir/production engineers as examples

Thanks

hmmmm

chapter what verse what? With God all things are possible. I believe God!