Natural Resources Home Page Introduction You will soon be making one of the most important decisions of your life. Now is the time to start thinking about the courses you must choose in high school to prepare you for the types of jobs that are available today. In Canada, most of the jobs in the petroleum industry are based in Alberta, but British Columbia, Saskatchewan and, more recently, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have become centres of industry activity. Offshore and onshore oil and natural gas industry jobs are fairly specialized.
Some jobs have very interesting names.
Therefore the petroleum and related industries need a wide range of skills and trades. Exploration for oil and natural gas and the production of oil and natural gas from wells usually involves many specialist firms with a wide range of expertise. Such companies are hired by the petroleum company that is conducting the exploration or producing the wells. To drill an oil or natural gas well onshore takes about 90 people while a similar operation offshore could involve 200 people. Examples of types of companies involved in the petroleum industry follow.