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| A United Kingdom Perspective |
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| | Andrew Carson
Job Title: Drilling and Completions Engineer
Studied Chemical and Process Engineering at Newcastle University
As part of my degree course I took an industrial placement at the ExxonMobil Chemical plant at Fawley. This was my first experience of working for the company and gave me a taste of what was to come. Even at this stage I was given work that a graduate would do along with a lot of responsibility. After the 13 months at Fawley I decided to apply for a graduate position in Production & Development. ExxonMobil's was by far the most relaxed assessment centre I attended and I made some good friends there, some of whom I now work with.
Having no background in the Upstream sector of the business it was difficult to decide which part to join. In the end I chose Drilling, as it seemed to be at the cutting edge of the business. This was very different from my placement at Fawley, as I had no background experience on which to call upon. However, I quickly picked up on the complicated process of drilling a well. It was quite incredible to realise that wells are drilled over three miles long down to hole sizes of 6"!
For me, one of the main attractions to ExxonMobil over the other big oil companies was their graduate training program. This takes place at the London Business School and is an opportunity to learn more about the business aspect of the industry. I also enjoy seeing graduates from other parts of the company and getting their perspective on the organisation.
I have completed a 12 month offshore rotational placement where I went offshore every few weeks to gain experience of the drilling operations first hand. I also went to Houston for 4 weeks at drilling engineering school where I gained alot of knowledge.
I have now drilled two wells, costing over £15 million in total and am now currently in the middle of planning my third well. This will be one of the most challenging wells drilled to date by my team, which is impressive when you consider the Beryl Platforms have been around for over 30 years.
My job will only get more challenging in the future due to the mature oil fields in the North Sea needing more complicated wells. In the future, I hope to use the experience I have gained in the North Sea for an overseas assignment.
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