- evaluating offset data before the start of drilling; - analysing, evaluating and describing formations while drilling, using cuttings, gas, formation evaluation measurement while drilling (FEMWD) and wireline data; - comparing data gathered during drilling with predictions made at the exploration stage; - advising on drilling hazards and drilling bit optimisation; - taking full responsibility for making decisions about suspending or continuing drilling; - advising operations personnel on-site and in the operations office; - acting, in effect, as the representative of the onshore oil company geology team; - supervising mudlogging, FEMWD and wireline services personnel and monitoring quality control in relation to these services; - keeping detailed records, writing reports, completing daily, weekly and post-well reporting logs and sending these to appropriate departments; - maintaining up-to-date knowledge of measuring while drilling (MWD) tools, such as gamma and resistivity, as geosteering becomes increasingly important; communicating regularly with onshore operations offices.

- working in wellsite units collecting, processing, logging and analysing geological samples; - using various laboratory techniques to evaluate detailed and complex data for signs of oil or gas; - monitoring computer recordings of drillings; - interpreting information and feeding it back to the drilling team to enhance safety and success; - operating and maintaining a real-time computer-based data acquisition system, the advanced logging system (ALS), which records all aspects of rig activity; undertaking some on-site maintenance, for which a knowledge of electrical and mechanical systems is useful; - taking on the primary health and safety role for the well through constant monitoring of all critical drilling parameters; - predicting dangerous situations, such as over-pressured formations; - assisting the wellsite geologist during coring operations; - reporting to the wellsite geologist and the oil company in written reports; - frequently acting as a drilling engineer, collating and then logging details of drilling operations in oil companies' computer systems.

- working in wellsite units collecting, processing, logging and analysing geological samples; - using various laboratory techniques to evaluate detailed and complex data for signs of oil or gas; - monitoring computer recordings of drillings; - interpreting information and feeding it back to the drilling team to enhance safety and success; - operating and maintaining a real-time computer-based data acquisition system, the advanced logging system (ALS), which records all aspects of rig activity; undertaking some on-site maintenance, for which a knowledge of electrical and mechanical systems is useful; - taking on the primary health and safety role for the well through constant monitoring of all critical drilling parameters; - predicting dangerous situations, such as over-pressured formations; - assisting the wellsite geologist during coring operations; - reporting to the wellsite geologist and the oil company in written reports; - frequently acting as a drilling engineer, collating and then logging details of drilling operations in oil companies' computer systems.

Mining and Oil Faculty, Geology of Oil and Gas