Description
Study subsurface geology to discover, appraise, and develop oil and gas resources. Integrate seismic, well, and geochemical data to map reservoirs, evaluate petroleum systems, and guide drilling and field development while managing risk, safety, and environmental stewardship.
- • Analyze 2D/3D seismic, well logs, cores, and mud logs to characterize reservoirs.
- • Plan and oversee acquisition of seismic, drilling, coring, wireline logging, and formation testing programs.
- • Investigate basin evolution, stratigraphy, and structural geology to define petroleum systems and plays.
- • Prepare structure and isopach maps, cross sections, and reports for prospect generation and field development.
- • Identify and estimate recoverable oil and gas resources using seismic, logs, cores, and production data.
- • Evaluate subsurface fluids, pressure regimes, and migration pathways to assess charge, seal integrity, and drilling hazards.
- • Conduct regional basin and play fairway analyses to high-grade exploration acreage and well locations.
- • Advise drilling and reservoir engineers on well placement, trajectory, and completion strategies.
- • Communicate subsurface interpretations via technical reports, presentations, and peer reviews.
- • Integrate potential field data and seismic attributes to refine subsurface interpretations.
- • Analyze cores, cuttings, and fluids with petrographic, geochemical, and petrophysical methods to determine reservoir quality.
- • Use and customize subsurface interpretation and reservoir modeling software.
- • Analyze seismic and well data using interpretation, petrophysics, and reservoir modeling software.
- • Generate prospect portfolios, risk assessments, and volumetrics; update subsurface models as new data arrive.
- • Collaborate with geophysicists, petrophysicists, engineers, and land or regulatory teams across the E&P cycle.
- • Evaluate unconventional resources, including tight reservoirs and shale plays, and assess development risks and impacts.
- • Assess and mitigate geohazards such as overpressure, shallow gas, faults, and karst during well planning.
- • Support environmentally responsible exploration and production and advise on site restoration.
- • Identify opportunities to reduce flaring and venting by characterizing gas composition and deliverability.
- • Identify new exploration leads and prospects in frontier and mature basins.
- • Screen depleted fields and saline aquifers for CO2 storage or enhanced oil recovery potential.
- • Assess source rock thermal maturity and hydrocarbon generation potential.
- • Advise on safe well siting relative to faults, H2S zones, protected areas, and existing infrastructure.
- • Incorporate geomechanical and geochemical analyses into well planning and reservoir management.
- • Contribute to ESG reporting and regulatory compliance for exploration and production activities.
- • Review drilling and production plans for environmental protection, spill prevention, and groundwater safeguarding.
- • Reconstruct burial and thermal histories to model hydrocarbon generation, migration, and timing.
- • Review technical literature, subsurface studies, and offset well reports to benchmark interpretations.
- • Identify subsurface risks, including pressure anomalies, pore-fracture gradients, and fault seal failure.
- • Provide wellsite geology oversight, including cuttings descriptions, gas monitoring, and geosteering.
- • Characterize reservoir facies and depositional environments to predict porosity and permeability trends.
- • Quality-control data, interpretations, and reports to ensure technical accuracy and data integrity.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
