Fuel your Career with Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum Engineering deals with exploration and production of petroleum oil and natural gas. It is a combination of innovation, exploration and expansion. It fuels the world and provides the building blocks for every other profession to effectively carry out its work.

Petroleum engineering courses are offered globally to prepare engineersfor the worldwide petroleum industry at the undergraduate and post graduate levels, and to carry out research that enhances the state-of-the-art in petroleum technology, and to serve the industry and public good through professional societies and public service.

Petroleum and natural gas industry, often called petroleum industry, is classified into upstream sector, midstream sector and downstream sector. The midstream sector involves the transportation, storage and marketing of various oil and gas products. The downstream sector involves the refining and processing of hydrocarbons. Petroleum is the most widely used form of energy. The petroleum products like petrol and diesel oil are widely used transport fuels in the present world. It is also a major raw material from which a wide variety of petrochemical products are manufactured.

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING CURRICULUM FOR UG PROGRAMS
Besides Fundamentals of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Basic Engineering Arts and Sciences, the petroleum engineering curriculumwill include: Geology (General Geology + Petroleum Geology, Petroleum Exploration, Well drilling technology, Well Completions, Formation Evaluation, Oil & Gas Production Technology, Petroleum Reservoir Engineering, Analysis & Management, Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques and a few elective subjects like Petroleum Reservoir Stimulation, Modeling and Simulation of petroleum Reservoirs, Natural Gas Hydrates, Coal bed Methane Engineering, Shale Gas Reservoir Engineering.

DEMAND FOR PETROLEUM ENGINEERS AND JOB PROSPECTS:
Presently the demand is low due to low crude oil and gas prices which are influenced by geopolitics. Several worldwide trends ensure that there will be strong demand for petroleum engineers.The increasing demand for energy, and the simple fact that oil and gas resources are limited, places the petroleum engineer in a strong position now and for many years to come. Oil company expenditures for exploration and production are rising fast, as are budgets and salaries for petroleum engineers.

As such India is working towards self-reliance in oil and gas sector and has immense potential to achieve the same, as about 80 per cent of the country's sedimentary area is yet to be explored. Recent large-scale oil and gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari and Rajasthan basins have further consolidated India's confidence to achieve the targets. The offshore exploration and production activities especially in the KG basin are continuously rising to meet the demand for crude oil and natural gas. There are also immense opportunities to become an international engineer and work in overseas locations including: South America, Africa, Middle East, Northern Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

An estimated 11% of Indian work force in oil and gas upstream industry retire in the next 5 years. So, the industry is desperate to hire new talent. PWC & Petrofed report of 2006 says that 1555 drilling engineers, 3319 reservoir engineers will be in shortage by 2017, the year of peak demand and supply gap for petroleum professionals. Further, opportunities exist for fresh petroleum graduates in the energy divisions of software companies like Accenture and Tech Mahindra.

NATIONAL & MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES
After completing the 4 year degree program, the fresh engineers can find employment in national and multinational oil and gas companies both in public sector and private sector. The names of a few employing industries are given below:

Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs): Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC); Gas Authority of India Limited; Oil India Limited; Indian Oil Corporation Limited; Bharat Petroleum; Hindustan Petroleum Corporation; Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (Gujarat State Owned Company)

Private Oil Industries include service providing companies: Reliance Petroleum Limited, Cairn Energy, Essar Oil India, Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Limited, Schlumberger, Weatherford. Haliburton India, Transocean, Baker Hughes, Mitchell Drilling International, Aban Offshore, Great Offshore, Jaqson International, Tata Petrodyne, Gas Projects (India) Private Limited, India LPG, Petrosil Group, Shiv-Vani Universal, Niko Resources Limited, Petronet LNG Limited, Geo Global Resources, JubiliantEmpro, Jhon Energy, Pankaj Petroleum Corporation Limited, Piyush Petroleum Corporation Limited, Prize Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hardy Oil and Gas Limited, Selan Exploration Tech Limited, Aeromarine, Jindal Drilling and Industries Limited, Parveen Industries Private Limited, Punj Lloyd Limited, GumproChem Drilling Fluids, Petrofac Engineering Services, Geoenpro, Mecom Ltd.

SALARIES OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS
Petroleum engineering has historically been one of the highest paid engineering disciplines. Similar to how petroleum prices fluctuate due to economic factors, salary of petroleum engineers varies according to several factors especially in private sector. Work experience and field of specialization are major factors to consider when looking at a petroleum engineer's salary level.The starting gross salary for fresh candidate as an assistant engineer in the PSU like ONGC is about Rs. 13 lakhs/annum with a basic scale of 24,900-50,500. In private companies like Reliance and MNCs, the range of salary: Rs.6 lakhs-12 lakhs/annum.

Opportunities in oil and gas sector are ample in Middle East with very high annual income packages for engineers with industrial experience of 5 years or more. The reservoir engineers and drilling engineers with minimum experience of 5-10 years are paid $ 500-800/day.

INSTITUTIONS THAT OFFER PETROLEUM ENGINNERING PROGRAMS IN INDIA
There are 30 institutions in India available for studying petroleum engineering listed in Table:
Table: List of Institutions Offering Petroleum Engineering Programs

Sl. No.	Name of Institution	Degree Courses	No. of Seats
1.	Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	110
		Dual Degree B. Tech & M. Tech. petroleum Engineering	20
		M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	30
		M. Tech Petroleum Exploration	30
2.	IIT Chennai	M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	20
3.	IIT Mumbai	M. Tech Petroleum Exploration	20
4.	MIT Pune	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
		M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	18
5.	Aligarh Muslim University	B. Tech Petrochemical Engineering	40
		M. Tech Petroleum Studies	20
6.	AMET University Chennai	BE Petroleum Engineering	60
7.	Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	72
		M. Tech Petroleum Technology	18
8.	Rajasthan Technical University, Kota	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	33
9.	Bhagwant University Ajmer	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
10.	Al Habeeb College of Engineering Hyderabad	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
11.	Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
		M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	20
12.	Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering, Sriperumbudur Chennai	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
13.	Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology Raebareli	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	40
		M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	10
14.	PanditDeenDayal Petroleum University Gandhinagar (PDPU)	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	120
		M. Tech Petroleum Engineering	20
15.	Chandigarh University	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	30
16.	Aditya Engineering College, Surampalem, A.P	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
17.	Sri Aditya Engineering College, Surampalem, A.P.	B.Tech. Petroleum engineering	60
		M. Tech. Petroleum Engineering	18
18.	University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun (UPES)	B. Tech. Applied Petroleum Engineering	83
		Gas Engineering Specialization	40
		M. Tech Petroleum Exploration	40
19.	Uttaranchal University, Dehradun	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
20	Dehradun Institute of Technology (DIT)	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
21.	Graphics Era University Dehradun	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
22.	Arya Bhatta Knowledge University Patna	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	30
23.	University of Technology and Management Shillong	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	30
24.	Lords Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	60
25.	BIT Mesra (Overseas Campus Dubai)	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	40
26.	JNTUK, Kakinada, A.P.	B. Tech Petroleum Engineering	50
27	Godavari Institute of Engg. & Technology, Rajahmundry, A.P	B.Tech. Petroleum Engineering	42
28	Sri Vatsavai Krishnam Raju College of Engineering, Bhimavaram, A.P.	B.Tech. Petroleum Engineering	42
29	Moghul College of Engineering, Bandlaguda, Hyderabad	B.Tech. Petroleum Engineering	42
30	Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy	B.Tech. Petroleum engineering	40

Establishment of Indian Institute of Petroleum & Energy, Visakhapatnam
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Government of India has established Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) at Visakhapatnam, as noted in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (2014), with the mandate to lead the nation forward in education, research and training related to all areas of Petroleum and Energy. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed on 4th February, 2016 between IIPE and Andhra University to start the IIPE sessions during the academic year 2016-17. The MoU is for a period of 3 years till the period IIPE sets up the infrastructure in its own premises. Government of Andhra Pradesh has allotted 150 acres of land free of cost in Visakhapatnam district for setting up the permanent campus of IIPE and the campus buildings are expected to be ready in there years.

The session of 2016-17 shall start B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering and B.Tech. Petroleum Engineering using the resources of AU College of Engineering (A), viz., AU’s lecture halls, teaching laboratories, Library, Workshops, Office space, technological facilities so on and so forth. Mutual knowledge exchange amongst the two prestigious educational institutes shall be facilitated by giving opportunity to faculty members of IIPE to attend a set of lectures / course(s) at AU. Andhra University has assured of support in terms of knowledge and resources for IIPE operationalisation. The MoU is facilitated by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. IIT Kharagpur will be the mentor institute for the establishment of IIPE.

IIPE has been established in lieu of Central University of Petroleum and it is having IIT Status. The admission to the above B.Tech. programs is through JEE ( Advanced) 2016-17. The details can be had from the IIPE website: www.iipe.ac.in

Department of Petroleum Engineering & Petrochemical Engineering at JNTUK
The Department of PE & PCE, the youngest and sixth department in the University College of Engineering Kakinada (Autonomous) was started in 2009. It offers two degree programmes, B. Tech. Petroleum Engineering & B. Tech. Petrochemical Engineering. The admissions of 50 students for each program are through EAMCET Convener.

JNTUK pioneered in starting the full-fledged petroleum engineering course at undergraduate level for the first time in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2010. Other private colleges have followed suit in 2011 and 2012.

Eligibility for Admission into colleges in Andhra Pradesh:
The candidate seeking admission into B. Tech. Course shall have passed the Intermediate Examination of AP State Intermediate Board of Education or equivalent examination with Maths, Physics and Chemistry as main subjects and must have secured a valid rank in the EAMCET Examination conducted by APSCHE. The seat allotment is made by the Convener, EAMCET as per the stipulated rules of A.P. State Government and APSCHE.

The admission criteria for the ISM, RGPIT and other private universities can be had from their respective websites.

ANALYSIS ON ADMISSIONS
Petroleum engineering degrees are not very popular in India especially in Andhra Pradesh because of a fewer institutions offering petroleum engineering courses. The other reasons are less awareness among parents. The course is perceived as tough. Career prospects are not highlighted by industry. These culminate into getting low performing students into these programs.

HIGHER EDUCATION OPTIONS
Postgraduate study is not always essential, although it may increase chances of good employment. Major employers prefer a higher degree in petroleum engineering. However, with petroleum institutes like PDPU, UPES and RGIPT opening up in the country, one can also get aspecialized MBA in Oil & Gas sector to kick-start one’s petro-career. Excellent opportunities are also available to pursue M.S./MSC in Petroleum Engineering/Petroleum Technology in US, Canada, UK, Russia, Norway and Denmark. The Indian Universities/Institutes offering the post graduate education are listed below:

 

• School of Petroleum Management, PanditDeendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat - 2 years M.B.A. (Oil and Gas)
• University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, Utiarakhand - 2 years MBA (Oil & Gas Management), 2 years M.B.A. (Energy Trading), 2 years M. Tech. (Petroleum Exploration),2 years M. Tech. (Health, Safety & Environmental Engineering) and 2 years M. Tech. (pipeline Engineering).
• Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) Rae Bareli - 2 years M.B.A. (Petroleum & Energy Management), 2 years M. Tech. in Petroleum Engineering.
• ISM Dhanbad - 2 years M. Tech. Petroleum Engineering, 2 years M. Tech. Petroleum Exploration.
• Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh, Assam - 2 years M. Tech. in Petroleum Exploration and Production, 1 year Diploma in Oil Well Drilling Technology.
• lIT-Madras Chennai, - 2 year M. Tech. in Petroleum Engineering.
• Andhra University- 2 year M. Tech. in Petroleum Exploration

 

Published date : 25 Oct 2021 11:27AM