The field of Oil and Gas industry has become in the last years more complex, especially since the oil companies begun to act like competitive public companies in the background of the national industry.

• Oil companies from all around the world have become powerful, such as Sinopec, controlled by the Chinese government, which occupies a place in the first ten major oil companies in the world.
• Russia has also gained an important role in the global economy by privatizing some of its major oil companies and taking the lead of the gas production with Gazprom.

• Lukoil from Russia is getting now in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas with retail outlets that belong to one of its companies, Getty Oil.

As a response to those international influences on the oil and gas market, the industry was marked by a series of merges, investments and acquisitions that lead to joint ventures. All those actions took place at an international level, and the oil industry has become a global one, creating excellent job opportunities for people of all nationalities.

One of the sectors of the oil industry that is less revealed is the oil exploration one. This sectors deals with finding fresh petroleum resources all over the world, either we talk about underground resources or under seas ones.

The job opportunities in the oil exploration sector are wide, as many of the positions require professionals with degrees in petroleum engineering or geology. There are many oil exploration companies that are looking to hire a lot of good professionals, especially young geologists in order to renew their aging staff.

By definition, the geologists are the professionals who study the composition and the history and the forming processes of the earth. Looking for a job as a geologist in the Oil and Gas industry requires you to operate in order to spot the best places for exploring the new petroleum resources.

• Their job is to study different types of stones, making charts, digging and measuring and finally find out the exact structure of the rock and the formation process that has given it its structure.

This job is not just an interesting one, but a very useful one too. Geologists can study the earth structure and find out where new reserves of water, oil or gas are placed, and we all know how important these are for our living.

• Some geologists can be helpful in building roads or structures by mentioning if the area is adequate for a building foundation, while others help preserving the environment by preserving the natural resources.

• The data is interpreted by using advanced technologies and sophisticated equipments like petrography microscopes or computers that will allow them to recommend the right place to drill for crude oil.
• After the geologist interprets the given data, maps are created including cross sections to reveal the underground configuration of the petroleum reservoir.
• Those are the drilling prospects.

Here are some of the tasks for the ones looking for employment as geologists in the Oil and Gas industry:

• Collects rock samples and analyses them.
• Makes recommendations about the right places to drill for crude oil.
• Designing studies and performing experiments.

The requirements for people who want to search for a job as geologist in the oil and gas field usually include:

• The entry-levels require a bachelor degree;
• For higher positions you will need a master degree or a doctoral degree; those can bring more opportunities and chances to be promoted;
• Any experience is a plus when applying.

In order to be successful as a petroleum geologist, the graduates who are job hunting must possess certain skills and knowledge such as:

• Organizational skills for your research projects;
• Ability to realize accurate statistics based on given information;
• Knowledge of GPS and GIS;
• Problem-solving oriented;
• Good communicator.

The statistics predict that in the following years the number of opening positions for geologists in the Oil and Gas industry will be in ascension. The opportunities in the field are excellent and the payments can reach even double-digit salaries due to the shortage of geologists and the need of renew the aging staff.

Another factor that determines the demands for petroleum geologists is the fact that the global oil reserves are decreasing and the prices are ever growing. The result? The oil and gas companies will continue to hire geologists in order to find out new precious reservoirs of crude oil.