As an executive in the oil and gas industry, Antonio Moschella is well familiar with the importance of exploration and production (E&P). You see, the oil and gas industry is divided into three sectors. The first is upstream, which Antonio Moschella will talk more about in a second with his discussion on E&P companies. The second sector is midstream, which deals primarily with the transportation and storage of petroleum products. The third is downstream, which is the refining of petroleum crude oil. You would also deal with marketing at this stage.

 

Regarding upstream, Antonio Moschella says that E&P companies are an integral part of the process. Unfortunately, deposits of oil and natural gas don’t shout out where they are. It is up to E&P companies to find these deposits by using seismology and other methods.

 

Once an E&P company locates areas where oil and natural gas may be found, it will have engineers assess how many wells are required to extract the resources from the ground. These engineers will also determine what infrastructure is necessary to support the amount of expected hydrocarbons that will be extracted. They will also review what environmental protections will be needed to make sure the area around the site isn’t negatively affected.

 

This describes the exploration side of it. Regarding production, E&P companies will actually often produce natural gas onsite. For petroleum crude oil, an E&P company will arrange to have it transported to a refinery where it will then be processed into various petroleum products. As you know from reading the opening paragraph, this is the midstream part of the industry.

 

E&P companies conduct their work all over the world where oil and gas deposits may be located, including Texas, Venezuela, and more. There are many start-up E&P companies out there, and every major oil and gas company will have its own E&P division to ensure that it doesn’t miss out on a key opportunity to find new oil and gas deposits.

 

Antonio Moschella says that if you are interested in working in the oil and gas industry, an E&P company may make a lot of sense as there are always new opportunities depending on where you live and how far you’re willing to relocate. Keep it in mind if you are looking for a change or a new opportunity in the oil and gas industry.