Ever since I read “The Prize” in middle school I have dreamed of becoming one of the great oil explorers. Now that I started my master’s degree in geology I am wondering if Chevron would be a good employer to help me fulfill my dreams.
21 replies (most recent on top)
@6mho: exactly right, take for example GOM. No one in current staffing has ever found any oil (They couldn't find any oil when they were responsible for the Shelf, either). Please don't count Whale, that was a NOJV Shell discovery, all we had to do was agree to drilling.
Chevron oil finders get a plaque and lunch at the Hyatt Regency with their boss. Other oil companies offer them barrels of money and meaningful promotions. Hence why Chevron can't hold on to "oil finders". Don't believe me? Try and track down the geologists/geophysicists who worked on all the big discoveries since 2000.
Ain't any "oil finders " getting above PSG 27. No geology fellows have done sh-t. None of the exploration bosses have ever found a barrel. It's clearly not prioritized
Gee, @3utp, perhaps you can enlightened us exactly where in the Annual Report exploration is “highlighted”?
Some of you have terrible misconceptions about Chevron Exploration. I suggest you read the annual report to get up to speed. It is robust, very well funded and global. A geologist's dream!
I find it hilarious that all of the execs pronounce exploration more like expiration
Amusing thread. I must say, those who are "supporting" Chevron Exploration seem as unsophisticated and out-gunned as the program itself. I'm personally well aware of how Chevron's exploration program went poorly funded and largely ignored once we turned our focus to the dividend, stock buy-backs, DEI and a hamster treadmill of social engineering.
“ Exploration gets to lease and drill every single year”… only if you consider step out Permian to be “exploration”. In the real world of conventional exploration most teams have not spudded a well since before the pandemic.
Very very few in CTC get promoted to PSG 28/29 based on technical work and most of those that do achieve success by finding a rising management star to brown nose. Almost all top out at 25/26.
@nsc: more recruiter-certified drivel. Let's examine: "Working in a well-funded and active function is a lot of fun, regardless of the results." Oh really? I thought OP wanted to be a "great oil explorer", not a "great map-maker" or "excel guru". ...and will the stockholders agree that dry holes are "a lot of fun"? "Exploration gets to lease and drill every single year". See @puz note about Chevron's pretty anemic exploration activity in the MW era. Doesn't sound like "a lot of fun". "There are new challenges for the earth scientists all the time" another vague statement. "There is also a shortage of qualified leaders so it can be pretty quick promotion to the upper echelons if you have any gumption at all (e.g. PSG28/29 in 20-25 years)" perhaps the most outrageous statement in the post. It doesn't mention that if you're not a high-pot, your chances of this outcome only hold true in the ivory tower of CTC. Perhaps @nsc would like to 'name drop' some initials of "oil finding geologists" who are now PSG 28/29. Even in CTC I doubt you'll find any, and your degreed geologists in management haven't mapped or promoted a prospect in decades. Hardly "a lot of fun" for OP.
Geologists at Chevron work 9-3 and work from home a lot You will be able to be present in your young children's lives. Do it
Check the losers on layoffs board, that's a good place for answers, lmao!
We only drill Dusters!
Working in a well-funded and active function is a lot of fun, regardless of the results. Exploration gets to lease and drill every single year. There are new challenges for the earth scientists all the time. You may not like it, but it is true. There is also a shortage of qualified leaders so it can be pretty quick promotion to the upper echelons if you have any gumption at all (e.g. PSG28/29 in 20-25 years).
@jcm, that sounds like something from the Chevron webpage, a sugary drivel handed out by recruiters to future petrotech hires. Let's break it down: "active in more than a dozen countries": a euphemism for "we hold leases in those countries". A more telling metric is "how many exploration wells did Chevron drill in the last few years"? (An alarmingly small number). We'll skip over "how many successful wells did Chevron drill in that time frame"? (1 is not an impressive number, especially compared to Exxon). "spent nearly $1 billion..." Might sound impressive, but not if you consider that just a few years ago (pre-MW), that budget was more like $4-5 billion, and Chevron would routinely drop half a billion on deepwater GOM leases alone. "hundreds of geologists..." out of a company of what, 25,000 employees? Chevron is an engineering/lawyer driven company where petrotechs are viewed as weird, but necessary, oddities. "nearly unlimited access to subsurface data" That's like saying if you step outside, you have 'nearly unlimited access' to all the atmosphere. It's a pretty vague and empty statement. None of this really sounds like where a 'great oil explorer' would want to work.
Chevron is one of the best places to work in exploration. In 2022 we were active in more than a dozen countries around the globe and spent nearly $1 billion of just our share of activity. We have hundreds of geologists and nearly unlimited access to subsurface data. You will love it!
Sorry to say, but those days of the "great oil explorers" are over. Two reasons: A) As an industry, we've pushed the limits of what can be explored. There are no undrilled basins left that are conducive to large oil. We've drilled the deepwater. We've fracked the tight rocks. What else is left? B) The industry has gone shy of taking any big risks (in The Prize, big risk equals big rewards), in particular Chevron is content to just drill out the Permian for the next decade. As an industry, there is far more benefit and reward from enhanced oil recovery than from rank exploration. Oh, and there's that little movement that all Western countries are trying to shut us down for crazy green fantasies.
ARe: Nargis. He’s one of the (very) few good ones left. He’ll get run off for making the discovery.
Chevron will crash your dreams. The only thing this company is good at discovering is the newest social trend. Do some research and see who are the strongest operators that actually drill good wells and grow production mostly organically and not through acquisition. It’s never Chevron anywhere. EOG, Pioneer, and may be couple of others if you look at the Permian.
No. Chevron does not value its (few and far between) successful oil explorers. Want proof? Just ask your Chevron recruiter or your contacts there if they can name just 4 or 5 current and successful oil explorers in the company. Maybe the geologist responsible for the Nargis discovery (Leviathan was a Noble discovery). Maybe an Exploration Manager who has actually found oil in their career. Maybe one of their "Fellows" who has actually found oil. They will hem and haw and have to get back to you - but they never will. Chevron is not an exploration company, their core strength is producing someone else's discovery.
Exploring for lithium would be the equivalent today.
After working for Chevron a few years, you're doctor will prescribe it for you.