Petroleum engineers from the School of Petroleum Engineering at the Montanuniverstät Leoben (Austria) are highly qualified and most wanted.
A petroleum engineer is involved in nearly all stages of oil and gas field evaluation, development and production. The goal of a petroleum engineer is to maximize hydrocarbon recovery at a minimum cost while maintaining a strong emphasis on reducing associated environmental impacts.
Such a broad qualification guarantees a multidisciplinary work environment. Therefore, petroleum engineers need to acquire expertise in a wide range of areas as their careers progress. These areas include: petroleum geology, drilling and production operations, reservoir engineering, as well as petroleum economics and management. They are also responsible for compiling detailed drilling plans, production strategies and development plans for improving oil and gas reservoir performance to ensure maximum economic recovery. They work in oil companies, service companies and consulting firms ranging from small to multinational. Global mobility is often needed.
Petroleum engineers cover a variety of topics:
Petroleum geologists find hydrocarbons by analyzing subsurface structures with geological and geophysical methods.
Reservoir engineers work to optimize production of oil and gas via proper well placement, production levels, and enhanced oil recovery techniques.
Production engineers manage the interface between the reservoir and the well through such tasks as (but not limited to) perforations, sand control, artificial lift, downhole flow control, and downhole monitoring equipment. They also select surface equipment that separates the produced fluids (oil, natural gas and water) and plan the interconnecting field pipeline infrastructure.
Drilling engineers manage all technical aspects of drilling both production and injection wells.
Petroleum engineers are involved in the upstream part of the energy industry which is the exploration and production of oil and gas. Upstream refers to the process of finding and extracting oil, which is usually buried deep beneath the earth's surface, to provide a continuous supply to consumers "downstream". Petroleum engineering covers a wide range of topics including: economics, geology, geochemistry, geomechanics, geophysics, oil well drilling, geo-politics, knowledge management, thermodynamics, well logging, well completions, reservoir development oil and gas production, facility engineering and transport.
Petroleum engineering has become a technical profession that also involves extracting oil in increasingly difficult situations as “easy oil” has been found and depleted. Improvements in computer modeling, materials and application of statistics, probability analysis, and new technologies such as horizontal drilling and enhanced recovery have drastically improved the toolbox of the petroleum engineer in recent decades.
Our academic positioning of “Performance Engineering” is what distinguishes us from the rest. During his or her studies, the Performance Engineer will be made familiar with the specialized knowledge and necessary tools that will quickly enable them to improve economic hydrocarbon recovery, thus contributing to the extension of the world's hydrocarbon reserves.