Real-Life Communication
Drilling engineers need to be adept at problem solving and decision
making and have highly developed math and science skills. In addition, most
need to have good communication skills.
"Communication skills are very
important," says Jennifer Wilding, a petroleum engineer. "You constantly have
to interact with co-workers and you need to be able to present your ideas
to management."
Writing skills are also important. "You need to send
letters to different companies, to the government, and you need to be articulate."
Currently,
you and a team of American co-workers are making a presentation to a Canadian
company stating why you think it would be smart for the company to continue
to increase its natural gas production for export to the U.S. This is what
you say:
In 1997, Canada became a leader in the upswing
of developmental drilling. Because of this drilling, there has been an ongoing
increase of exports of natural gas from Canada to the U.S. In fact, one major
oil company is currently developing gas fields in the provinces of Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Also in Canada, Hibernia, the massive field
off the coast of Newfoundland, sent out its first shipment of oil to the U.S.
in 1997. In addition, big gas fields are available near Sable Island, which
is approximately 125 miles from the coast of Nova Scotia.
Right now,
it's cheaper for us to import gas via pipelines from Canada than it is to
produce our own. Canada's pipelines have been growing, and the natural gas
production has doubled from 1986 to 1996. There is a clear demand for the
kind of work your company does.
(Statistics taken from the Energy Information
Administration)
Here are a few questions
management asks you:
- Why is the U.S. interested in importing gas rather than producing its
own?
- Name two ocean sites in Canada that promise big stores of oil and gas.
- How long did it take for Canada to double its production of natural gas?