Petroleum Engineer

Summary

Explore a new career with the BLM - where our people are our most precious resource.

This position is located in the following locations:

• Vernal, UT $86,123 - $134,195 Special Rate
• Miles City, MT $74,678 - $116,362
• Buffalo, WY $74,678 - $116,362
• Flowood, MS $74,678 - $116,362
• Canon City, CO $76,650 - $119,434
• Sacramento, CA $82,780 - $128,987

We will fill 1 vacancy at each location; however, additional positions may be filled from this announcement if they become available.

Learn more about this agency

Duties

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• Conduct technical review of drilling, completion, workover, and plugging programs to ensure safety, environmental protection, and regulatory compliance.
• Analyze and approve APDs and Sundry Notices, recommending corrective actions or alternative engineering solutions when needed.
• Evaluate drilling designs, casing/cementing programs, pressure control, drilling fluids, and operational plans to protect resources and prevent hazards (e.g., H2S, abnormal pressures).
• Support reservoir management through drainage analysis, well spacing evaluation, and participation in unitization/communitization decisions.
• Lead or support NEPA/land-use planning efforts by providing technical input, reviewing documents, and contributing to interdisciplinary teams.
• Oversee inspections of drilling and production operations to verify compliance, prevent royalty loss, and ensure safe, workmanlike practices.
• Provide expert technical guidance to operators and BLM staff, including testimony and specialized recommendations on complex engineering issues.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Be sure to read the 'How to Apply' and 'Required Documents' Sections.
• You cannot hold an active real estate license: nor can you have an interest or hold stocks in firms with interest in Federal Lands.
• Direct Deposit Required.
• Appointment will be subject to a favorably adjudicated background/suitability investigation/determination.
• Your resume must contain enough information to show that you meet the qualification requirements as defined in the announcement. In addition, your responses to the questions must adequately reflect in your resume.
• If selected for this position, you will be required to annually complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450 within 30 days of reporting to duty.
• An applicant appointed to this position must possess (or obtain within 30 days of entrance on duty) and maintain a valid state driver's license while employed in this position.
• May require a one-year or two-year trial period

Qualifications

In order to be rated as qualified for this position, we must be able to determine that you meet the qualification requirements - please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience.

You must meet one of the following Basic Requirements in order to be eligible for this position; please see the Education section for the Basic Requirements

AND

To qualify for the GS-11: You must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-09 level that is equivalent in difficulty and complexity as indicated by the following examples: Providing petroleum engineering expertise to carry out difficult and conventional assignments; unconventional applications including those covering unprecedented, complex and/or novel proposals needing senior engineering assistance; investigating and analyzing reservoir management problems and drainage areas and volumes providing professional petroleum engineering and regulatory review and making recommendations for approval of conventional oil and gas applications and inspecting oil and gas activities for conformance with standards and compliance.

-OR-

EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. You must include transcripts.

-OR-

Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above.

To qualify for the GS-12: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience may include all of the following: performing technical review and making recommendations for approval of all down-hole operations and reviewing applications for permits to drill (APDs) for completeness and adequacy; reviewing downhole pressures, casing and cementing plans, blow out prevention equipment, geology and other procedures to protect people, minerals, and aquifers; coordinating with other specialists; providing on-the-spot instructions and authorizations for final plugging and abandonment of wells; providing technical expertise and support to junior Petroleum Engineers, Petroleum Engineering Technicians, and/or Petroleum Accounting Technicians concerning oil and gas inspection and enforcement issues; conducting both engineering and economic analyses to determine viability of proposals/variances and their respective short and long term benefits; reviewing well data, leases, well spacing, unit agreements for various compliance issues, and maintaining relative spreadsheets; providing various technical reports to management for higher level meetings; providing expertise to management regarding complex technical issues.

There is no substitution of education for experience at this grade level.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

Time In Grade Requirement: Federal employees in the competitive service are also subject to the Time-In-Grade requirement in accordance with 5 CFR 300.604. If you are a current Federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks at the next lower grade level.

Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary. Occasionally, the petroleum engineer conducts field work which requires travel over rough roads, hiking or climbing in rough terrain, and carrying field equipment.

Work Environment: Most work is performed in a typical office environment. Occasional field work will require exposure to a range of climatic conditions from subzero to over 100 degrees temperatures, rain and snow; exposure to poisonous gasses, and other similar dangerous conditions.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)/lnteragency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP): These programs apply to employees who have been involuntarily separated from a Federal service position within the competitive service or Federal service employees whose positions have been deemed surplus or no longer needed. To receive selection priority, you must: 1) meet CTAP or ICTAP eligibility criteria; 2) be rated well qualified for the position with a score of 90 or above; and 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP or ICTAP eligibility. For more information: CTAP or ICTAP

Education

You must meet one of the following Basic Requirements in order to be eligible for this position;

Petroleum Engineer- 0881 Series Basic Requirements:

1. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

OR

2. Combination of education and experience college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

1. Professional registration or licensure Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
2. Written Test Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
3. Specified academic courses Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
4. Related curriculum Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

TRANSCRIPTS: You must submit copies of all transcripts or a list of college courses that include hours and grades from an accredited U.S. college/university. See Required Documents section for more information.

FOREIGN EDUCATION : If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office (ed.gov).

Additional information

DOI uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit E-Verify.

PCS INFORMATION: PCS may be authorized.

Certain incentives (such as Recruitment, Relocation or Student Loan Repayment) may be authorized to eligible selectees. If eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The decision to offer an incentive will be made on a case-by-case basis and is neither promised nor guaranteed. For information visit: Recruitment Incentive or Relocation Incentive or Student Loan Repayment.

Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered for Selective Service

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary or two-year trail period or during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. This probationary or trial period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Travel, per diem, and lodging may not be paid. All travel and lodging expenses associated with reporting for duty in this position may be the sole responsibility of the selected employee.

The official worksite for the selectee is the duty station identified in this vacancy announcement. The selectee will typically report to this duty location on a regular and recurring weekly basis. The selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

This position is considered a career ladder opportunity, with a full performance level of GS-12. If selected at a lower grade level, you may be non-competitively promoted to the next grade level at the discretion of your supervisor and is contingent upon meeting regulatory and legal requirements for promotion, satisfactory performance, and the availability of higher-level work. Promotion is not guaranteed, and no promise of promotion is implied.

Please note that documents selected for transfer from your USAJOBS profile are NOT automatically added to your application. You need to transfer your document(s) in the "Documents" step during the application process.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

Review our benefits

Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.