In general, a drilling engineer is involved in the organization and control of the oil & gas well drilling operations. As a specialist, his job description includes the understanding of drilling equipment, types of wells, drilling process technology. So here, we will discuss the drilling engineer job description, requirements, working environment, top universities, and salary.
While preparing a drilling program, the engineer is guided by technical specifications, geological survey data, the purpose of wells, and the period of their future production. He assesses the risks that may arise during the drilling of the well and is responsible for any environmental violations. The drilling operations must be planned in accordance with safety regulations.
As a drilling engineer in oil and gas, you will plan develop and supervise the operations required for drilling oil and gas wells. Also, You will be involved from the initial well design to testing, completion, abandonment, and taking responsibility for the well costs estimates.
1 Work Environment
In this role, you can work in the head office, onshore fields, offshore platforms, or mobile drilling units. Also, you will be employed by the operating oil company, a specialized drilling rig contractor, or a service company.
You will work with other professionals, such as geologists and geoscientists, to monitor the progress of drilling, oversee safety management, and ensure environmental protection.
2 Requirement
This requirement may be asked in any drilling engineer job vacancy depending on the required experience
Technical Requirements
- Prepare drilling program, drilling data analysis, and processing, optimization of drilling operation measures.
- Drilling cost management (check also oil well drilling well cost per foot) and accounting.
- Drilling operations and drilling contracts management.
- Familiar with the whole workflow of drilling operations.
Other Requirements
Technical secondary school degree or above, rich on-site experience, good computer skills, good health, adapt to the fieldwork environment, a decent, strong sense of responsibility, holders of supervision certificates are preferred.
3 Drilling Engineer Job Description:
In general, the job description of a drilling engineer include scheduling drilling, predicting any unforeseen problems that may appear while drilling, coordinating work and necessary equipment, analyzing data of offset wells, performing well casing design calculations, preparing the directional plans, etc.
The following is the scope of work and duties of the drilling engineer:
- Provides control over compliance with the established technology for drilling wells, the quality of drilling, casing, and well development.
- Participates in the preparation of long-term and current plans for the drilling operations by the enterprise, and also determines the most promising directions for improving the technological processes of drilling.
- Directly supervises individual complex and new technological processes at the worksites, supervises the implementation of the developed technological recommendations for the establishment of logical drilling methods and optimal parameters of drilling modes.
- Participates on preparing the directional drilling plan including well trajectory calculations, BHA design, Torque and drag optimization
- Participates in the selection of drilling tools, casing sizes, casing setting depths, cementing tools, and Casing Liner & Liner hanger
- Participates in drill string design including selection of drilling jars, drilling stabilizers, drill pipes, drill collar & others.
- Work with the mud drilling contractors and mud engineer to prepare drilling fluid program
- Personally conducts briefings to members of the drilling crew involved in complex types of work.
- Participates in the work of the commission to investigate the causes of accidents and defects in the work performed by the rig.
- Drilling Engineer draws up operational plans for the exhibition of critical operations (running of casing strings and their primary cementing, setting of cement plugs, work in case of complications in the wellbore, work with a formation tester, emergency response).
- Preparing technological reports (drill string sketch, sketches of the BHA, sketches, and availability of emergency tools at the company, accounting for the operating time of BHA components, tool measures).
- Maintains technical documentation and carries out its corrections in connection with changes in well drilling program, makes proposals for decreasing non-productive time for drilling rig, and also for the prevention of drilling accidents, complications, and problems.
Other Drilling Engineer Roles
- Participates in experimental work on the development of new equipment and production technology and controls the implementation of approved measures and plans.
- Participates in the development of measures to increase the commercial drilling rates and also to reduce the cost of well construction, while not reducing the quality of the work performed.
- Analyzes data on the work of drilling crews (driller), drilling equipment, tools, monitors compliance with the rules of technical operation of equipment and tools, drilling bits.
- Generally, the drilling engineer’s job description includes monitoring the process of perforations, possibly, productive horizons, compliance with the design data on the drilling operations, compliance with the parameters of the drilling fluid, the condition of the blowout preventer, the gas turbine pump, compliance with the instructions for work, and other regulatory documents.
- Based on the data of the analysis, he prepares monthly written reports, which he submits to the production and technical department.
- Also, Participates in preparing current applications for the logistics of drilling operations, and maintains the necessary accounting and reporting.
- Ensures the execution of orders, the execution, in a timely manner, of the orders of representatives of state supervision and other regulatory bodies at work sites.
- For sure, he takes part in the work of the preparation for the certification programs “Industrial safety and labor protection” of workers of the drilling rigs.
- Supervises the technical condition of blowout equipment and personally conducts safty meeting with members of the drilling crew, before opening the well of possibly productive zones.
- Drilling Engineer scope of work include fulfilling the requirements of the “Supplement” on production control at the enterprise over the state of “Industrial safety and labor protection” during the operation of hazardous (Oil Rig Hazards) production facilities and the “Regulations” on the production control commission of the enterprise.
- Ensures compliance with the Rules: labor protection, safety, environmental safety, and fire safety in the course of work at the company or rig site.
- In accordance with the requirements of the “Supplement” on production control, it submits written reports on the state of health and safety at worksites in a timely manner. Control over the correctness of compilation of reference collections of rocks, the definition of categories of rocks and categories of the complexity of areas of work, requirements for accounting, and storage of geological materials.
- Coordination of the activities of subdivisions of the geological (geophysical, hydrogeological) profile
- Participation in the development and implementation in the production of rational complexes of prospecting methods in relation to specific natural and geological conditions of the areas of work.
- Visits to geological exploration sites for management and control.
- Coordination of thematic works performed by industrial geological organizations or research institutes in the territory of the enterprise.
- Ensuring timely verification of geological maps based on the generalization and analysis of the results of the geological exploration work performed.
- Compliance with the established deadlines for the execution of tasks and orders.
- Compliance with the rules of labor protection, safety, and fire safety.
- Compliance with commercial secrets, the security of official documents, and the procedure for working with documents.
4 Top Universities For Drilling Engineers
Universities In USA
- University of Texas–Austin (Cockrell)
- Texas A&M University–College Station
- Stanford University
- Pennsylvania State University–University Park
- University of Oklahoma
In Canada
- University of Alberta
- Memorial University
- Dalhousie University
- University of Regina
- University of Calgary
Universities In Europe
- Technical University of Denmark
- Imperial College London
- University of Strathclyde
- Heriot-Watt University
- Delft University of Technology
In Asia
- Bachelor in Drilling Engineering – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
- Bachelor of Engineering in Petroleum Engineering with Honours – Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- BS in Petroleum Engineering – Khazar University Baku, Azerbaijan
- Bachelor in Petroleum Engineering – China University of Petroleum
5 Salary of Drilling Engineer
Drilling Engineer salary varies all over the world from 500 $ in Czech to 11286 $ in USA per year. We have collected the average salaries according to the drilling engineer job description in 35 countries.
| Country | Average Gross Salary Per Year USD/Year | Monthly Average Salary USD/Month |
| United States | 135,427 | 11,286 |
| Australia | 119,080 | 9,923 |
| Germany | 112,497 | 9,375 |
| Canada | 111,966 | 9,330 |
| Japan | 108,529 | 9,044 |
| United Kingdom | 98,713 | 8,226 |
| Netherlands | 98,112 | 8,176 |
| United Arab Emirates | 96,163 | 8,014 |
| France | 90,575 | 7,548 |
| Italy | 84,572 | 7,048 |
| Spain | 74,180 | 6,182 |
| Saudi Arabia | 69,163 | 5,764 |
| Portugal | 60,420 | 5,035 |
| South Africa | 59,155 | 4,930 |
| China | 57,860 | 4,822 |
| Ecuador | 45,674 | 3,806 |
| Chile | 41,221 | 3,435 |
| Malaysia | 39,853 | 3,321 |
| Indonesia | 32,449 | 2,704 |
| Brazil | 31,263 | 2,605 |
| Iraq | 29,642 | 2,470 |
| Morocco | 27,259 | 2,272 |
| Mexico | 25,076 | 2,090 |
| Russia | 20,518 | 1,710 |
| Egypt | 16,363 | 1,364 |
| India | 16,352 | 1,363 |
| Pakistan | 15,769 | 1,314 |
| Colombia | 15,699 | 1,308 |
| Argentina | 15,278 | 1,273 |
| Turkey | 15,265 | 1,272 |
| Czech | 5,625 | 469 |
