Petroleum engineers design and manage drilling and production operations around the world wherever oil and natural gas is found. This may take place in the Arctic, jungles, oceans, or even in shale formations here in the United States. Petroleum engineers thoroughly study geologic and engineering data in order to design drilling and production operations that maximize production rates and reservoir recovery. As a petroleum engineer, you might move to field, district, area, staff, and chief petroleum engineering positions. Alternatively, you might prefer to advance through such management posts as supervisor, superintendent, manager, and presidentCEO. Once you acquire industry experience, you might want.