Petroleum engineers need knowledge in the following areas:

• Engineering and Technology: How to use computers and rules of engineering to design and produce goods and services.
• Mathematics: The rules and uses of numbers.
• Physics: The features and laws of matter and energy.
• Computers and Electronics: Computer hardware and software.
• Chemistry: The properties of substances and the changes that occur when they interact.
• Administration and Management: How to run a business or group.
• Economics and Accounting: Banking and business.
• Clerical: General office work such as filling and storing information.
• English Language: The meaning and use of the English language.
• Design: Making and using plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Law, Government, and Jurisprudence: Laws, rules of the court, and the politics.