The Future Need for Petroleum Engineering Petroleum engineering will be needed for decades to come to provide the required energy for the world and help alleviate the challenges of climate change. It will evolve into energy transition as it has been changing since its inception in modern history. July 21, 2021 Source: Getty Images. Petroleum engineering is and will be needed for decades to come to provide the required energy for the world and help alleviate the challenges of climate change. Of course, petroleum engineering will evolve into energy transition as it has been changing since its inception in modern history with the Drake well in 1895, located in Pennsylvania. At the same time, we will continue to use the current practices in our daily operations. Petroleum engineering practices can and will also be used in solving some of the climate change issues. This information is described in detail in SPE 200771 (Kamal 2020). It is unfortunate this paper did not receive the same publicity in