Among the many engineering fields, Petroleum Engineering is a very challenging and demanding career opportunity. Extracting oil and gas from the earth is the primary job of a Petroleum Engineer. Petroleum now provides over 70 percent of the world’s energy and likely to do so for another 100 years. In a sense, no other branch of engineering is more concerned with our everyday life. Economic and environmentally safe production of hydrocarbon resources requires creative application of a wide spectrum of knowledge, ranging from the basic sciences like mathematics, physics and chemistry to almost all engineering disciplines like Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, etc. A Petroleum Engineer is involved at just about every stage of oil-field evaluation, development and production to maximize hydrocarbon recovery from earth. They evaluate potential oil and gas reservoirs along with Geologists, select and implement recovery scheme, design surface collection and treatment facilities and oversee drilling activities. When a workable reservoir containing oil or natural gas is discovered, a petroleum engineer’s job is to achieve the maximum profitable recovery from the reservoir by implementing the most efficient method. Because only a small proportion of the oil and gas in a reservoir will flow out under natural forces, petroleum engineers develop and use various enhanced recovery methods. These include injecting water, chemicals or steam inside the well to force more of the oil out. Though best known technologies are in use, recovery is only 25 percent of the reserve. Hence a Petroleum Engineer has a future full of challenges and opportunities. They must develop and apply new technology to recover more hydrocarbons from oil fields and gas fields. They must also devise new techniques to recover oil left in the ground after application of conventional production methods. These new methods must be aimed at recovering additional petroleum beyond 25 percent typically recovered with conventional technology. Required Personality Traits The prospective candidate must enjoy technical and engineering work. He must adhere to the safety requirements. Besides this, ability to work without supervision, good communications skill and co-ordination skill are very important. A Petroleum Engineer must be a very careful and responsible person, as petroleum production is a hazardous operation and an oil-rig cost crores of rupees. Working Conditions Petroleum Engineers work where oil and gas found may be inside the sea in an oil-rig or inside a forest or may be even in the desert. As this specialisation in engineering is very demanding, it calls for hard work. An Engineer in this field must be ready to face many challenges, either natural or social, to make it a success. As many oil exploration companies are multinationals and work worldwide, hence many engineers from India work outside the country. In the country the employers of Petroleum Engineers are the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and other oil companies like Oil India etc. Courses One can have a BE / B.Tech degree in Petroleum Engineering after 10+2 (with PCM) from: l Indian School of Mines - Dhanbad l Maharashtra Institute of Technology - Pune l Bharathidasam University - Tiruchirapalli and M.E./M.Tech after Engineering from: l Indian School of Mines - Dhanbad l Dibrugarh University - Dibrugarh; Assam l Maharashtra Institute of Technology Kallol Dutta