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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
December 2005

Vol. 10, No. 49 Week of December 04, 2005

UAF seeks to double petroleum engineers

Seeking to snag its share of students nationwide interested in petroleum engineering, the University of Alaska Anchorage has hired a recruitment coordinator and two part-time telemarketers to help double enrollment.

Shirish Patil, a UAF associate professor of petroleum engineering, said more than half of the field’s engineers today are over 50. “Most of them are expected to retire in the next 15 years,” Patil told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Nov. 27’s editions.

Expanded production and increased exploration driven by high oil prices have combined to increase demand for petroleum engineers, whose starting pay typically ranges between $50,000 and $60,000.

Demand for petroleum engineers in Alaska could increase if the state succeeds in developing a North Slope natural gas line. Starting wage for the engineers in Alaska is $65,000 to $75,000.

Patil said UAF graduates are virtually assured employment in a market that has more positions than qualified applicants. “The industry is really hurting for petroleum engineers at this moment,” he said.

SPE study finds enrollment up 46%

A study by the Society of Petroleum Engineers found enrollment in undergraduate petroleum engineering is up 46 percent nationwide since 2002.

New recruitment and marketing efforts at UAF are aimed at doubling current enrollment of 28 undergraduate and 18 graduate students. Nationwide, 2,347 undergraduates are pursuing petroleum engineering. While that’s the highest enrollment since 1987, it’s far short of the peak 11,014 enrollment in 1983, the Society of Petroleum Engineers said.

UAF added a petroleum engineering program to its College of Engineering and Mining in 1980. The school focuses on engineering problems in the Arctic and Alaska and hopes to continue to capitalize on that emphasis.

“The industry would like to have employees with Alaska experience who want to stay in the state,” said David Ogbe, professor emeritus at UAF. “That makes our program quite attractive.”

Increased exploration and developments in extraction of viscous oil and shallow gas have further driven the demand for skilled engineers among the major oil producers. BP recently announced plans to increase its Alaska work force by 15 percent in the next year. Many of the 200 new jobs would be in engineering.

Smaller, independent companies have increased activity as well; Ogbe said those units are looking for qualified engineers too.

“Right now the demand is quite high,” Ogbe said.

—The Associated Press





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