Petroleum/Reservoir Engineering Intern Review

Doing this internship over my summer break was more fun then expected! The work given to you is actually meaningful and technically challenging which was great. Before beginning the internship you are sent your project details to allow you to grasp the objectives you should complete by the end of the internship. Knowing this before actually starting was good.

I would always have the option to eat lunch with the team which was a good way to get to interact with the team in an environment which was less work related. I would present my findings of my project multiple times and the feedback I would get not only by my supervisor but others attending the presentation reinforced the fact that the project is valued and not just a made up challenge.

My supervisor was great! During the internship I wanted to get the right balance between asking for too much help and not asking for help when needed. This became less of an issue as my supervisor arranged for us to have a weekly meeting to discuss my progress; I would still ask for help if there were any urgent issues that arose during the week. My objectives were clear and concise.

During the start of my internship I was extremely busy as I would try and grasp coding and begin to make a start of my project. There were periods when I did not have much work to do; during these periods I would read up on any problems that initially confused me. Towards the end of the internship the workload picked up again as I tried to meet all the deadlines and present my findings to my team.

When beginning the internship I thought I would not be given much responsibility- this was not the case! From week 3 I would Skype with the team in Angola and was presenting to my team based in Sunbury. The project I was working on was requested my a partner and in my penultimate week I actually presented to the partners, which was a great responsibility as you are put in front of external companies.

On my first day I came to realise that majority of the simulation work I needed to do involved coding. As I had no prior experience in coding my supervisor sat with me for an hour and taught me the basics and from there it was more or less a trial and error tactic. Without the initial hour I would be clueless. Alongside my supervisor giving me mini-tutorials, we have 4 lessons by the chief reservoir engineer (RE) who explained the basics behind both PE and RE. The skills developed will definitely help me in my final year design project, where I will be doing something similar to what I had done over the summer period.

The atmosphere was good. The position of my desk was unfortunate, as I was not sitting right next to my team; nevertheless, they made an effort to include me with majority of activities the team did which was great. At the office there was a variety of teas and coffee for free which was amazing.

Once I began the internship it was clear that a lot of effort had gone into making the entire process as smooth as possible. We were told the start date within a reasonable time and all the interns were made aware of the key dates during the internship. Knowing the dates of the mid-internship and end of internship interviews in advance was beneficial.

A couple weeks after finishing my internship I received a call where I was offered the RE graduate job. When initially applying for this graduate role you are only made aware that it is PE/RE and not the specific speciality. It was really good that during this call when I had asked whether PE or RE I was told that I had been given the specific role I had requested.

Around half the interns were not from the local area so 12 of us interns lived together during the internship period. The accommodation was organised by BP themselves so all we had to do was email a form to the residential halls stating the duration of our stay. You still have to pay for the accommodation but there is no hassle finding a place! We would meet up with the other interns frequently and most weekends would be very social.

As expected, London was expensive. Commuting to central London multiple times ended up being costly as we were staying near Twickenham. Staying here was amazing for the commute to work as it wasn't lengthy and took around 20 minutes by car.

Sunbury itself has no nightlife - none I am aware of anyway! We would frequently go out to places in Clapham, Kingston or central London which was amazing. The nights out were great memories as there were so many people that would go out. Again being in London meant entry and drinks were expensive.