Devon Sills – Reservoir Engineer at Chevron
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EDUCATION:
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My favorite college memory was when I was given the opportunity to sit in on a Two Phase Flow Modeling graduate course as an independent study my senior year of college. In my four years at the University of Tulsa, this was my favorite experience—not only was the material fascinating and challenging, but also I was able to take a course from one of my favorite professors before I graduated, Dr. Shoham. Between high school and college, I worked for Worley Parsons researching and looking at country entry evaluations. After that I spent two summers with Newfield Exploration, one as a production engineering intern in Elk City, OK and the other as a completions engineering intern in Myton, UT. During my Sophomore and part of my Junior year of college, I was working part time as a reservoir engineer for Newfield Exploration while I was attending school. The summer before my senior year I was offered the opportunity to work for Chevron as a reservoir engineer in the New Ventures team and was able to gain a lot of experience and knowledge during that time. In regards to school, I earned the Thomas C. Frick Award for Outstanding Achievement in Petroleum Engineering and also the Robert H Parks, Sr. Petroleum Engineering Outstanding Senior Endowed Award, which was only given to one senior per graduating class for all of the University of Tulsa. I was surrounded by a lot of amazing and intelligent individuals, so it was quite the honor to be even considered.
Now I am working at Chevron in Houston as a reservoir engineer in the reserves team and I am very excited to take all the knowledge that I've learned from the University of Tulsa, previous internships and Chevron to apply it to my new job. As an SPE volunteer, I updated and maintained the website for the University of Tulsa Student Chapter for SPE for one year and attended many meetings every year. The SPE Gulf Coast Section scholarship helped with my college tuition and allowed me to focus on my schoolwork. The connection with SPE allowed me to learn about various opportunities and connect with different types of people in the industry. My advice to students is that while you’re in school, it is extremely important to complete as many internships as possible and learn as much as you can. Maintaining a high GPA is the first stepping-stone to get opportunities for valuable internships as it will always set you apart. Ask lots of questions and make an effort to take advantage of all the knowledge that people in the industry have so they can continue to pass it on. Contact me at devonsills@gmail.com.