While our world is progressing in energy development, overpopulation and demand for natural resources, it is increasingly necessary that the oil industry reaches high levels of advances in new technologies, for which it requires cutting-edge professionals, those who can break with the classic paradigms of oil professionals, where the preparation is multidisciplinary and comprehensive.
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Author of the image: Reytingio. Image under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 International license
I have always had the need to constantly update myself, if it is true that the new technologies do not arrive every day at the locations where an oil well is drilled, but if new tools arrive regularly, especially in the part of directional drilling, this adaptation only deserves technical adjustments, so the new adaptation does not require a new mentality and intrinsic attitude in the engineer that has to adapt, however there are roles for which oil engineers must assume and understand, for example, for increasingly complex scenarios, it is necessary to have petroleum engineers who have a managerial mentality, in which they have knowledge not only of drilling, reservoir engineering, geology, hydraulics, but also of having a broad knowledge and comprehensive on economics, finance, anthropology and history.
A question arises to this need: why should oil engineers know about anthropology and history?
In my experience as a drilling operations engineer, I have reflected on many issues and decisions that are made within the industry, and that in some way or another impacts relatively negatively with neighboring communities to the locations where wells are drilled. This generates a social impact on people, their culture, their way of life is altered, and especially in my country Venezuela where there are oil fields in the West, specifically in the state of Zulia, where there are settlements of indigenous communities. If a manager does not have the necessary knowledge in history and anthropology, he will not understand the negative way in which these oil activities impact these indigenous communities.
Historically, many of these indigenous communities such as the Yukpa and Barí have had to change their culture and ancestral lifestyle, and have had to adapt to the customs imposed by colonialism, and today I have seen many men belonging to these ethnic groups exercising work. of drill workers in the locations where I work. That is why it is important to transcend new knowledge to transform the profile of the new oil engineer that is adapted to the new realities and demands of today's society.
How has the Oil Engineer profile evolved?
The way in which the profile of the petroleum engineer has been able to evolve is due to how the demands of the oil industry have been changing, it is a breadth of knowledge that ranges from drilling engineering to reservoir engineering. However, currently the oil industry has incorporated a wealth of new technologies, mainly oriented to the need to increase the production of barrels of oil, which means that today's petroleum engineer has to overcome this barrier in the range of [Drilling Engineering - Reservoir Engineering] to be able to prepare with new knowledge in the area of hydrocarbon production.
Is there a specific type of professional to take on these new demands?
The type of professional that should assume the new roles, will depend a lot on the oil area where it develops, as I said in previous paragraphs I work in the drilling area, there the roles and the new challenges are very different than those can be sued for example in production, that is why the Universities in conjunction with the oil industry entities that must merge to prepare the oil engineer in their various roles and as the demand of their various activities.
Conclusion
The demand for energy is increasing and the price of hydrocarbons is rising, which means that the challenge will increasingly be to find new fields of exploitation, in increasingly remote locations, where new technologies for exploitation and hydrocarbon production will be changing, all this requires cutting-edge professionals, so the requirement for the new profile of the oil engineer must be at the height of new ways of producing and at the same time to conserve our planet by taking Consider the preservation and care of our resources, so that this activity goes in harmony with the environment.