America's oil and natural gas companies currently employ 1.9 million men and women in a wide range of highly skilled professions. And the oil and natural gas industry is a growth industry, creating thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs at home and abroad each year.

• By 2008, the need for petroleum engineers in the oil and natural gas industry will have increased more than 34 percent from 1998. By 2014, the need for geological and petroleum technicians will have increased 6.5 percent from 2004.
• These are good jobs. In 2004, the median annual income for a petroleum engineer was $88,500. Careers in the petroleum engineering field traditionally have long-term stability, and the Bureau of Labor statistics ranks it as very low for unemployment.
• Oil and natural gas companies are among the largest employers in some states, including Montana, New Mexico, and Utah, where the average salaries of these professionals can be as much as twice the states' average earnings.
• In Colorado, for example, the average oil and natural gas employee makes $85,000 a year, more than twice the state’s average earnings of $40,000. In Wyoming and Montana, the average oil and natural gas employee earns about two-thirds more than the average worker in other industries.
• However, the industry has an aging workforce. Since the early 1990s, the number of university students studying petroleum engineering has fallen by more than 85 percent.
• To meet ever increasing demands and secure America's energy future the oil and natural gas companies need to continue to attract the best people to work with the best technologies.

The oil and natural gas industry provides one of the most unique and satisfying careers. Our companies are investing in the most cutting edge technology and offer fulfilling careers to the next generation of American engineers, geophysicists, chemists, earth scientists, geologists, climate experts, and explorers. In addition, we employ professionals that most people don't normally associate with our industry, such as botanists and marine biologists, even zoologists and veterinarians. These individuals, working with the best technologies, will help find and recover oil and natural gas here and abroad and help secure America's energy future.