Petroleum Engineering: It's a Gas!

Petroleum engineers routinely rank in Forbes magazine's list of the top twenty-five best paying jobs in America. However, unlike the medical professions that often populate that lists top ten, it can be tough to find opportunities to gain the skills and experience necessary for this highly lucrative profession. Online education offerings have opened up this critical energy sector specialization to new job seekers, just as employers hope that new talent can help them squeeze higher returns from limited resources.

Online Education Options for Petroleum Engineering Professionals

Only a handful of colleges and universities boast faculty with the skills, experience, and certification to train petroleum engineers. However, advances in online education tools and technology have started to open access to this highly competitive field. Furthermore, many experienced petroleum engineering professionals have discovered the benefits of completing business and management career training programs. Hoping to reduce recruitment costs, many employers now subsidize part or all of an engineer's costs to complete an online degree program.

Typical Petroleum Engineering Coursework

Over the past few years, employers have tasked petroleum engineers to become more highly skilled at finding ways to extract more energy from dwindling oil and natural gas supplies. Therefore, petroleum engineering degree programs cover subjects such as tool design, chemistry, geomechanics, thermodynamics, and more. Students in petroleum engineering programs can earn different online degrees, including a bachelor's, master's, or even a doctorate.

Career & Salary Options for Petroleum Engineering Professionals

Government statistics indicate that a recent graduate of petroleum engineering degree program can expect to earn about $57,000 or more as an apprentice to a more experienced engineer. However, nationwide, petroleum engineers enjoyed significant median earnings in 2007. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), petroleum engineers earned a median salary of $103,960 in 2007. Petroleum engineers can find work in a variety of fields including oil and gas extraction, mining, coal product manufacturing, as well as consulting firms.
Sources:
Forbes
Journal of Petroleum Technology
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Engineers
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Petroleum Engineers

Joe Taylor Jr. is an internal business consultant for a Fortune 500 company, who writes about finance, culture, and design. He holds a bachelor's of science in communications from Ithaca College.