Things change fast in resource industries (forestry, mining, oil and gas, …) as the market swings and the “economic supercycles” affect prices and investment levels. The “university cycle” takes longer, but this creates a mismatch in supply and demand of persons with appropriate training, as once an uptick happens, it takes several years for enrollment to rise, and 4 or 5 years to graduate. This mismatch has whiplashed petroleum programs everywhere in the world.
The termination of some petroleum engineering degree programs in Canada and the United States is a reflection of the depressed prices and the environmental concerns with fossil fuel that have acted since 2014.
Petroleum engineers, particularly reservoir engineers, drilling and well completion specialists (e.g. well integrity and well stimulation), and multiphase thermo-hydraulic fluid flow modellers, are needed for many other current and future subsurface activities:
Massive carbon dioxide sequestration in sedimentary basins
Extraction of energy from warm fluids in sedimentary basins
Enhanced Geothermal Systems design and implementation in low-permeability crystalline rocks
Deep waste injection for liquids, gases, and slurries of waste particulate matter and waste water
Geological disposal of radioactive wastes
Storage of energy as compressed air in designed wellbores and salt caverns
Wellbore-based solution mining of metallic ores through controlled deep chemical leaching
Extraction of lithium and other dissolved species from geothermal and hypersaline brines
Heat storage in geo-repositories for seasonal use in cold climates
…and, continued extraction of oil and gas as we gradually reduce our fossil fuel consumption
So, as the O&G industry undergo a recovery (for how long?) and demand for experts is on the rise again, companies cannot find Petroleum engineers to hire. So, they hire other disciplines and have extensive office- and field-based training programs. You may expect remuneration levels to be on the rise again in the sector.