Chemical engineer

Alexandrea Antonio is a Petroleum Engineer and graduated from the University of Houston with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering in the Spring of 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Petroleum Engineers design equipment to extract oil and develop methods to extract then convert crude oil into viable fuel with the help of Chemical Engineers. 

 

When asked what Chemical Engineers can do in a field like Petroleum Engineering, Alexandrea responded:

 

"Figure out what kind of oil is being produced. So you have different kinds of oils, you have heavy oils, lights, you have natural gas, you have liquid natural gas and so with each different type of oil you have to figure out what tools to use. What's the density of the oil because that will affect the rate at which it flows... and also what type of fluids you need to use when working with them."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer

 

"In the refinery side, you have to figure out how to extrapolate the water or the paraffins in the oil. Also, separation of the gas from the oil, the water. But a big thing in the extraction side is creating fluids to create downhole because depending on the properties of the fluids downhole, whatever you put inside the well, will affect the properties of it."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer

 

"You have to control the temperature. Some wells are high in temperature so you have to put the fluids downhole that can withstand the temperature, that won't change properties given at that temperature or that pressure."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer

 

"For Petroleum Engineering there's many different facets. Just like what I do is Petroleum but it's not Chemical based but there's Physics and more mechanical based with the actual drilling. Then there Chemistry, dealing with the fluids."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer

 

Some helpful advice:

"Chemistry was one of the more harder classes. In chemical processes, how a fluid can be changed under the right temperature or the right pressure in a compressor, how would a fluid react, how will it separate, how will it combine."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer

 

"Chemical engineering is also a top-paying job out of college and its more broad than Petroleum but just make sure it's what you want to do because it is tough. Chemical engineering is one of the top-fail rates."

-Alexandrea Antonio, Petroleum Engineer