Are you fascinated by taking up a Geology main in faculty? It is not a bad course, and prospects are fairly good general. Employment opportunities look pretty strong for the next few decades, strongly supported by world economic fundamentals. After all, geologists are the people who discover new deposits of oil, gasoline, metals and minerals – all of them uncooked supplies in nice demand from each developed nations (e.g. the USA and Europe) and growing countries (particularly China and India). The main employers of geologists are the federal government sector, the mining business and the oil/fuel trade.

So, what’s a geologist’ wage on an oilrig? In line with a 2008 survey by American Geologic Institute, it ranges from $eighty,000 to $one hundred,000 for a recent Geology graduate with a relevant Masters degree. Another survey by the University of Houston in 2007 indicated that skilled petroleum geologists (10 years and up) earn an average salary of $132,132 a 12 months. Those are increases of 50% for brand new geologists on offshore oil platforms and 23% for experienced geologists prospecting for oil since 2003/2004. This is a wage range that may turn the CEOs of many small companies inexperienced with envy.

However it’s now the summer time of 2010 and we now have just exited one main recession and hit a significant bump within the highway because of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Absolutely there have to be some impression for a geologists working offshore? Effectively, in case you are graduating (or a veteran looking for a new employer) as we speak, there’ll in all probability be some artificial downward stress in your pay. But severely, the demand for oil workers and individuals who can find oil shouldn’t be dependent on the brief-term standing of the economy. The demand for expert geologists and other rig employees has traditionally depended on the value of oil. Just look on the Roaring ’80s, where the economic system was booming however the worth of oil was low. Oil firms and drilling contractors have been laying off workers left and proper. Have a look at our recent recession for an example of the alternative – the value of oil remained robust ($60 to $70 per barrel) regardless of the weak economic system. Although they laid off workers on less productive land-based oil fields, they employed staff for newer and extra lucrative offshore oil fields.

Essentially, there are three main the explanation why a geologist will still continue to earn the large bucks for the following 10, 20 and even 30 years. The primary is that it’s troublesome to train a very good geologist. 20,000 students enrol in Geology each year, however solely 2,800 graduate with the needed specialties to search for oil. Geology is a four-yr course, and it’s not straightforward to pass. In addition to, a field geologist will not be someone who lives above the clouds in an ivory tower. He is, continuously, somebody who should journey long distances, face both man-made and natural hazard, and work in difficult situations. In some methods, he is nearer to Indiana Jones (besides with a Geology diploma as a substitute of an Archaeology degree) than he’s to Einstein.

A second major purpose for the continued sturdy demand for Geology graduates is that many previous, skilled oil geologists are actually in their 40s, 50s or 60s. The beforehand cited University of Houston survey also discovered that 72% of oil workers are above forty. Most of them were last employed in the final oil boom within the 1970s, and are the survivors of the oil glut of the 1980s. Those who left the oil trade went to more stable government jobs (or to work for the mining corporations) in the mass lay-offs. Any good oil firm CEO knows that an excellent petroleum geologist who can discover him a new oil field is value as much because the Marketing director or Finance Director.

The third big cause is that oil is an important gas and uncooked material for modern plastics, and many others. Even when greener applied sciences (e.g. hydroelectricity, solar panels and wind turbines) overtake oil in importance, there isn’t a replacement for the use of oil to create all of the totally different kinds of plastic in use at present. By the best way, if you’re so anxious about green vitality supplanting oil, consider these info:

– Photo voltaic panels are fabricated from plastic (synthesized from petroleum) and silicon;
– The our bodies of wind turbines are largely product of plastic;
– The heavy vehicles and equipment used for building hydroelectric dams, mining aluminium (for wind turbine blades) and silicon (for photo voltaic panels) are usually diesel-powered;
– The trains, ships and trucks used to maneuver the uncooked materials (e.g. aluminium and silicon) from the mines to the manufacturing unit for processing all run on diesel.

Mainly, good petroleum geologists are in nice demand. Amongst their most necessary duties helps to seek out new sources of oil. Their salaries will remain excessive for a great, very long time to come.