DRILLING ENGINEERING

About

A drilling engineer develops, plans, costs and supervises the operations necessary for drilling oil and gas wells. They are involved from the initial well design to testing, completion and abandonment.

Engineers can be employed on land, on offshore platforms or on mobile drilling units either by the operating oil company, a specialist drilling contractor or a service company.

The role can involve administering drilling and service contracts, engineering design, the planning of wells and supervising the drilling crew on site.

Drilling engineers work with other professionals, such as geologists and geoscientists, to monitor drilling progress, oversee safety management and ensure the protection of the environment.

Career

The role of a drilling engineer can vary depending on the employer but tasks often include:

• preparing well data sheets;
• designing and selecting well-head equipment;
• drawing up drilling programmes, taking account of desired production flow rates;
• obtaining relevant data, carrying out engineering analysis on site and recommending necessary actions and writing up reports;
• monitoring the daily progress of well operations;
• keeping track of current daily costs, comparing actual costs with expenditure proposals and recommending cost-effective changes;
• liaising with specialist contractors and suppliers, such as cement companies or suppliers of drilling fluids;
• monitoring safety and ensuring the good maintenance of the well;
• adhering to environmental protection standards, in some cases through direct discussion with local governments to ensure compliance with legislative requirements;
• establishing and administering drilling and service contracts;
• coordinating and supervising the work of the drilling team;
• undertaking engineering design and the planning of wells (including development work);
• designing directional well paths (horizontally or multi-laterally, as appropriate);
• managing operations on behalf of small clients;
• contributing to conceptual field development design;
• working with multidisciplinary professionals to evaluate the commercial viability of the well and monitor progress during drilling;
• returning the site to its natural environmental setting if drilling is not to be pursued.

Job Prospects

If you begin your drilling engineer career with one of the large oil companies, you may initially manage a single well under supervision. However, fairly quickly, you could become responsible for wells involving budgets of £5 to 10 million.

As you gain in experience and seniority, you could take on the overall supervision for the drilling and production operations on several wells, initially offshore and then moving onshore.

Typically, training programmes last up to five years. You will usually be expected to change jobs or projects every 18 months to two years, which may also mean changing location.

Career progression in oil companies is usually into management. However, with drilling contractor work, engineers tend to remain in a technical role, using their expertise to access and develop the most appropriate technology for drilling in the future.

Independent consultancy is another option, although you will need to work hard to balance the good times with the less prosperous periods.

A typical career path could involve working for two to four years offshore or on an onshore wellsite and then moving into an office-based design role. This path might eventually lead to working in an overseas office following a one month on, one month off pattern.

Drilling is the aspect of oil exploration most affected by the economic climate, which may affect opportunities for career development. Activity is in response to the decisions of the oil companies as to where drilling will take place.

Other similar roles to that of drilling engineer include cementing/stimulation engineer, completion engineer and subsea engineer.

Remuneration

• Starting salaries for drilling engineers are around £25,000 to £35,000.
• With experience and an increased level of responsibility, drilling engineers could earn between £40,000 and £80,000. Salaries can vary depending on the size of your employer.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Course Structure

Section-A

Section-B

Project Work