How To Become A Successful Drilling Engineer

If you want to work in management and handle various types of drilling equipment, you might be a good fit for drilling engineering. This supervisory function comprises managing the well drilling process to ensure its safety and efficiency. There are numerous requirements you must achieve before you can operate as a professional drilling engineer. In this post, we will look at what a drilling engineer does, what talents they have, and how to become one.

What is a drilling engineer?

A drilling engineer works for petrochemical companies, organizing and supervising oil rig drilling operations. They develop, operate, and maintain various drilling equipment and machinery, as well as manage the drilling process, to ensure its safety and efficiency.

Drilling engineers often strategize and implement techniques to drill wells that save the organization money while also protecting other employees. Some drilling engineers work lengthy, rotating shifts and may need to travel between job locations.

What does a drilling engineer do?

Drilling engineers are specialists who work with mobile drilling units or offshore oil platforms to oversee the well drilling process, from the initial well design to testing the designs and implementing these designs and plans on job sites.

They work as part of a drilling crew to extract resources such as metal ores, natural gas, and minerals from various types of terrain on land and in water. Drilling engineers generally function as supervisors, overseeing the drilling team’s performance and productivity.

Common job responsibilities of drilling engineers include:

• Preparing data sheets of each well the team drills
• Creating production flows and plans for drilling different wells
• Monitoring the daily progress of employees and well operations
• Tracking daily costs and budgets of drilling efforts and comparing costs with expenditure proposals
• Creating safety protocols and processes to ensure the protection of drillers at all times
• Building and administering drilling and service contracts to teams and clients
• Drilling wells on various terrain levels and designing directional paths
• Assessing risks of each drilling location
• Managing the reporting and logistics of each drilling operation

Drilling engineer skills

Successful drilling engineers should have strong leadership and interpersonal skills in order to assign work to employees based on their talents, expertise, and interests. Drilling engineers must be physically fit because they are constantly on their feet throughout the day. Some organizations may require drilling engineers to travel to different locations to manage specific teams or plan drilling paths in diverse terrain types, therefore a willingness to travel is essential.

Other common skills drilling engineers should have to succeed include:

• Interpersonal and listening abilities
• Leadership and task delegation skills
• Strong physical stamina and manual dexterity
• Report-writing abilities
• Verbal and written communication skills
• Team-building and collaboration abilities
• Problem-solving and critical thinking abilities
• Ability to stay calm in high-pressure situations

How to become a drilling engineer

To function effectively, drilling engineers must receive the proper training, licensure, and education. Follow these steps to become an excellent drilling engineer:

1. Earn your bachelor’s degree

Most companies need drilling engineer candidates to hold a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering or a similar discipline. This program’s courses provide an introduction of basic engineering, physics, and mathematical ideas and how they apply to the production, drilling, and transportation of oil and gas.

More in-depth drilling engineering courses include thermodynamics, well testing, engineering ethics, mechanics, and geostatistics. These courses include both classroom lectures and laboratory experience.

2. Participate in an internship

When you’re ready to take on a full-time position, you might begin as an entry-level employee working under the direction of a drilling engineer. Before going on to more advanced fieldwork, you might help these specialists conduct research and collect data for prospective drilling engineer projects. As your professional experience grows, you may be assigned increasingly complicated responsibilities, such as traveling to different drilling sites, building various oil rigs and paths, and implementing solutions to challenging workplace challenges.

4. Get your license

Once you’ve spent several years working as a drilling engineer, you’re required to earn a license from your state. Most states have similar requirements needed to earn a drilling engineer license, including holding a bachelor’s degree, working in the drilling engineer field for several years and passing the Professional Engineering and Fundamentals of Engineering exams. These exams test you on the basic engineering experience you learned from your engineering degree program.

5. Receive your certification

Earning an additional certification is an excellent method to broaden your skill set and develop in your career. Consider getting one from the Society of Petroleum Engineers. This certification requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering, four years of relevant professional experience in the discipline, and a demonstrated track record of ethical job performance. In addition, you must take and pass a written examination and continue your education in order to renew this certification on a regular basis.

6. Advance your education

Some employers may require candidates to earn their master’s degree in petroleum engineering. Even if it’s not required, this credential can help you stand out to hiring managers and could make you eligible for promotions, more complex and important responsibilities and higher salaries. These programs last around two years and offer courses like hydro-geology, reservoir engineering and industrial applications.