Big Oil makes big push on campus

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas senior Thuan Phan switched majors from computer science to geological sciences, figuring the field trips would make it more fun. Now his degree turns out to be lucrative, too.

“Big Oil” has been doing some big recruiting on U.S. campuses this year — as have many smaller companies in the petroleum and natural gas business. The combination of high prices, an aging work force and a tight pipeline of trained workers has the industry desperate for talent. Phan accepted a $55,000-per-year offer in Houston at Schlumberger Ltd., an oilfield services firm.

“The pay’s really good, and it’s just exciting,” says Phan, who may pursue a master’s degree while he works.

For job-hunters, 2006 is a good time to graduate from college. The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ most recent survey found companies planning 14.5 percent more on-campus hiring this year; a recent salary survey showed offers up significantly across a range of fields.

But it’s a particularly good time for petroleum engineers and geologists — fields that were so slow in recent years some university departments closed. Offers made last fall to undergraduate petroleum engineers averaged $62,236, up more than 6 percent, and the highest of any categories in NACE’s survey (geologists’ starting salaries are generally somewhat lower).

Prominent geoscience programs, including those at Texas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Colorado School of Mines, are reporting more companies interviewing on campus. William Fisher, dean of UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences, saw something this year he’d never seen before: a student got a signing bonus — for a summer internship.

“My guess is the demand for geoscientists is roughly twice the supply,” Fisher says.

Three major factors are at work:

• Prices. Oil around $70 per barrel provides incentive and funding to look for more of it. But most of the easy-to-reach oil has already been tapped, and finding what’s left requires advanced technology and expertise.

“If you go back to the old ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ show, you dig a hole in the ground and oil pops up. Those days are gone,” says Paul Poley, vice president of human resources at Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp.

• Demographics. During the oil bust of the 1980s, the industry stopped hiring. Now, workers’ average age is 49. Big companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC predict that half of their work force 10 years from now has yet to be recruited, says Christopher Keane, director of communications and technology at the American Geological Institute.

• Too few students. Interest in the geosciences varies with the market, but takes time to adjust. Total U.S. geoscience degrees approached 10,000 annually in the early 1980s, then crashed to about one-third that by 1991. Last year, about 2,400 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate degrees were granted.