Guide to Petroleum Engineering Career

By: Engr. Azunna I. B. Ekejiuba

Historically, human beings have used petroleum in one form or another since ancient times (more than 8000 years ago). However, the birth of the modern petroleum industry was on August 27, 1859, when Colonel Edwin L. Drake used the then popular cable tool (also called churn or percussion) drilling method to drill the actual historically first oil well, on a stream called Oil Greek, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, at a depth of 69 feet, six inches (21 metres).

In recent years, the advent of the transcontinental transmission lines and petrochemical industries has increased the value of natural gas (methane) to a fuel in great demand and a chemical feedstock (raw material) for many modern commercial and industrial products, particularly the synthesis of plastics, rubber, fertilizers, solvents, adhesives, pesticides, gas-to-methanol (GTM), liquefied natural gas (LNG), et cetera.

Guide to Petroleum Engineering Career is an ideal career guide, lecture note, practical manual, petrochemical production guide, information source (to all categories of practicing petroleum industry workers and enthusiasts who are interested to know more about the current key mankind energy resources), as well as a reference on the emerging renewable fuel economy which reflects the challenges faced by the millennium petroleum engineers.

About the Author

Engr. Azunna I. B. Ekejiuba (Ph.D.) holds a double doctorate degree in both Petroleum Engineering and Gas Engineering from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria and a master's degree (M. Eng.) in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. He also received a bachelor's degree (B.Sc.) in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He was the former Head, Department of Petroleum Engineering, at the Federal University of Technology Owerri. The author of more than 30 extensive academic/industry publications in scholarly reputable national and international journals, he has attended several seminars, workshops, conferences, and learned society's activities. In addition, he has published many book chapters and has also delivered numerous keynote and invited lectures at international conferences.

Dr. Ekejiuba has held key leadership positions as well as chairperson or co-chairperson of many committees and organizations. He is a member of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE-International and Local Chapter, 1980 to date), Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), an affiliate of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and Nigerian Gas Association (NGA). He is married with children.