MIRI: The Department of Petroleum Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Science of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently hosted an industry talk by Abel Tan, a senior reservoir engineer at Sarawak Shell Berhad, for its students.
The talk entitled “Life in an Oil and Gas Company from the Perspective of a Reservoir Engineer”, covered pursuing a career in petroleum engineering, the future of the global oil and gas industry, and knowledge and skills needed to join the industry. Tan described the work life of a petroleum engineer and elaborated on the roles of petroleum engineers in field development.
According to him, petroleum engineers could take on various roles, including reservoir engineers, drilling engineers, completion engineers, production technologists and petrophysicists.
He said that the scope of petroleum engineers was actually wide as they are involved in almost every phase of operations and lifecycle of fields, from exploration, appraisal and development through to production, secondary and tertiary recovery, and abandonment.
He also stated that employment opportunities for petroleum engineering graduates would increase as the demand for energy continues on an upward trend worldwide.
“There will be many activities to meet the growing energy demand from developing countries, particularly in Asia where rising standards of living and household income will drive more consumption,” Tan commented.
Replying to questions from the students about the future of the oil and gas industry, Tan said there would still be demand for oil and gas as the main sources of energy for the foreseeable future.
