Petroleum engineering students perform meaningful research towards the advancement of oil and gas recovery while gaining technical knowledge and weighing ethical considerations.

Petroleum engineers extract oil, gas and other resources from the Earth, and they do it all over the world. They plan and supervise the drilling of wells, evaluate oil and gas production, and predict future production from the Gulf of Mexico to the coasts of Singapore. Aside from everyday gasoline, petroleum is also used in different fuels, and its byproducts are found in everything from car tires to toys.

While the program encourages students with an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering to pursue graduate study, many graduate students are accepted with backgrounds in other areas of engineering, such as chemical engineering, mechanical engineering or geological engineering. The program accepts such students with the expectation that any remedial petroleum engineering coursework will be met by the student while in residence for the master’s degree. Students with backgrounds in geology or geophysics will also need to complete all fundamental engineering courses required for a degree in engineering.

Career as a petroleum engineer

S&T petroleum engineering grads work all over the world in the areas of drilling, production, and reservoir engineering of oil and gas fields.