Geoscience Office Locations

Initial work locations in exploration and production are typically in Houston. Longer-term assignments could be in Houston or in one of our international offices located in a variety of countries in Europe, Africa, the Far East, Latin American or the former Soviet Union.

The Upstream research organization is headquartered in Houston. Assignments could involve travel to many worldwide locations.

Academic Requirements

All positions for geology and geophysics are at the MS/Ph.D. level.

What are we looking for?

A diverse group of talented geoscientists with:

• Ability to integrate knowledge, ideas, and skills to solve geologic problems across exploration, development, and production functions

• Judgement and speed in application of geoscientists' tools and techniques

• Desire to maintain their competitive advantage through advanced training and superior technology

Research

Geoscience careers with ExxonMobil offer the opportunity to perform basic and applied research in seeking new ways to find and recover petroleum supplies. Our research programs reflect Exploration and Production business strategies; pursuing attractive exploration opportunities, developing production from new fields, and maximizing economic recovery from existing fields. We maintain close relationships with ExxonMobil operating organizations around the world. A primary means for transferring technology to ExxonMobil operations is through research application. We apply the results of research to a wide range of exploration and production projects. In many cases, we make our technical experts available to ExxonMobil operating organizations through temporary or regular assignments.

Typical Starting Opportunities

Geoscientists with ExxonMobil have the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and expertise throughout their careers. Multiple assignments in operations and/or research ensure the breadth and needed depth of experience for success. Geologists or geoscientists have opportunities to develop broad backgrounds necessary to do exploration and production mapping and prospecting or to specialize in various technical aspects of the exploration and production process.

New Hire Development Programs have been developed with the goal of providing on-the-job experiences and training for geologists and geophysicists. They are designed to provide the fundamental experiences needed to explore for and produce hydrocarbons. The programs typically involve a number of rotational assignments in the first 2 years followed by a developmental assignment, which is designed to apply and improve an individual's integration skills. The goal is to expose new hires to skills and techniques and to develop expert competency in a minimum of one geoscience skill are in a timely matter. Additional areas of expertise are achieved as individuals advance in their careers.

The focus in the rotational assignments is to build a basic, working knowledge of oil and gas exploration/production and learn data acquisition and analysis techniques. ExxonMobil provides both formal and on-the-job training in subsurface mapping and prospecting techniques, sequence stratigraphy and facies analysis, prospect sizing and applications. The focus in the specialized geological assignments is to build skills to expert level in areas such as will site operations and formations evaluation. Specialized geophysical assignments include seismic data acquisition design and quality control, seismic processing, seismic applications (direct hydrocarbon indicator analysis, rock properties work, seismic modeling), 3D visualization or gravity and magnetics.

Why is New Hire Development Given Such Emphasis?

• Provides standard, solid experience and early technical broadening

• Protects training - gives all new hires an equal start

• Promotes early awareness of corporate resources - People, Tools, Data, Techniques

• Fosters flexibility and awareness of organizational opportunities

• Fosters a better fit of individual's skills and interests to business needs

Typical Assignments

In exploration, work is done at the field to play scale and focuses on discovering new fields. In production, work is done at the hydrocarbon reservoir to field scale and focuses on defining, developing and depleting existing fields.

Future assignments could be with a regional/frontier team, a new venture team or established trend team in exploration or a new field development team or mature field development team in production. Work with a regional/frontier team is done on a play to basin-wide scale to identify areas of future exploration interest or to better define play controls in an existing exploration trend. New venture teams work in areas where concessions have been acquired and some discoveries made. There, the emphasis is on confirming discoveries and testing new prospects in order to refine reserves and economic assessments, and determine whether or when production operations should commence. A new field development team focuses on a recently discovered field in an area with existing production operations. Its mission is to determine field size, identify drive mechanisms and reservoir and hydrocarbon characteristics, and develop a depletion plan.

A strong emphasis in these assignments will be to build skills in integrating geological data and techniques, such as paleontology, outcrop and core/cuttings descriptions, and production data; as well as geophysical data and technique such as 2D and 3D seismic interpretation and seismic application techniques (direct hydrocarbon indicator analysis, modeling). Our goal is to provide both exploration and production assignments early in one's career and, over the long term, develop explores and exploitationists who prospect by integrating both geological and geophysical data.

For Ph.D. applicants, a wide array of research is conducted in a number of geological and geophysical areas. A typical assignment may include research in one of three organizations address resource evaluations, seismic imaging or reservoir analysis. The Integrated Basis Analysis Organization provides an opportunity to conduct research in Geochemistry, Migration, Structural Analysis, Basin Evaluation, Visualization Technology, Rock Mechanics, and artificial intelligence.

The Reservoir Geometry and Continuity Organization focuses on reservoir facies - quality and producibility, seismic reservoir characterization, geologic modeling, petrophysics/reservoir quality, and carbonate reservoir analysis.

The Subsurface Imaging Organization focuses on seismic acquisition and processing research, interpretation techniques and complex structure imaging.

Internships

ExxonMobil is dedicated to an ongoing recruiting program and our geoscience internship is one avenue we pursue to find qualified candidates. Each year, ExxonMobil hires bright and energetic students who are participating in an MS or Ph.D. program. Internships are held year round. Interested students should apply to noted address.