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Category
Drilling & Well Engineering
Work Pattern
Onshore / Offshore rotational during cementing operations
Reports To
Cementing Manager / Drilling Supervisor
Position Overview
The Cementing Engineer designs, plans, and supervises cementing operations for oil and gas wells, ensuring zonal isolation and long-term well integrity. This role covers primary cementing (casing cementation), remedial cementing (squeeze, plug), and specialty cementing (HPHT, deepwater, lost circulation). Cementing is a critical well integrity function, and failures can have severe safety and environmental consequences — making experienced cementing engineers highly valued.
Key Responsibilities
- Design cement slurry formulations and programmes for primary and remedial cementing operations.
- Perform cement slurry laboratory testing (thickening time, free fluid, fluid loss, compressive strength, rheology).
- Prepare cementing programmes including pump schedules, displacement calculations, and spacer designs.
- Supervise cementing operations at the wellsite, ensuring execution matches the programme design.
- Evaluate cement job quality through interpretation of cement bond logs (CBL/VDL, ultrasonic tools).
- Design and execute remedial cementing operations (squeeze cementing, plug placement, patch repairs).
- Specify and manage cementing equipment (plug containers, stage tools, float equipment, centralisers).
- Develop lost circulation cementing strategies (thixotropic, foam, micro-fine cement).
- Coordinate with mud engineers on mud conditioning and spacer design prior to cement jobs.
- Prepare post-job cementing reports, including job performance analysis and lessons learned.
Qualifications
Required
- Education: Bachelor's degree in Petroleum, Chemical, or Mechanical Engineering.
- Certifications: IWCF Level 3 minimum; BOSIET/FOET with CA-EBS; Offshore Medical; H2S Awareness.
- Experience: 5–10 years in cementing engineering with wellsite operational experience.
- Technical Skills: Proficiency in cement slurry design and testing; understanding of cement hydraulics and displacement efficiency; knowledge of cement evaluation logging (CBL/VDL, ultrasonic); experience with primary and remedial cementing.
Preferred
- HPHT cementing design experience (including gas migration mitigation).
- Deepwater cementing experience (narrow pore-fracture window management).
- Familiarity with cement plug and abandonment (P&A) design for decommissioning.
- Experience with cement simulation software (Landmark CemPRO, iCem).
Market Intelligence
$650–$1,050/day
Shortage Level: High
Key Skills Gap: Engineers with both the design capability and operational execution experience for complex cementing (HPHT, deepwater, remedial) are scarce; cementing is often treated as a commodity service, masking the need for specialist expertise.
Regions in Highest Demand: Middle East, North Sea, West Africa, Southeast Asia
Demand Drivers: Well integrity focus increasing scrutiny on cement quality; decommissioning campaigns requiring P&A cementing expertise; HPHT well counts rising with associated cementing challenges.