I can’t believe how much of summer has already passed. I only have one week left in my internship! For the past nine weeks I’ve been working at Aera Energy, LLC in Bakersfield, CA. As I explained in my last post, Aera is an upstream oil and gas business. They find areas with oil and gas, produce it out of the ground, and sell the crude oil and gas to someone else to be refined. My project has been mostly petroleum reservoir engineering, which means in the big picture, I’m looking at how to increase production over the whole oil field. More specifically, I’m looking at how to increase water injection. Injecting water back into the oil field is one way to increase production. To end the summer, every intern needs to give a final presentation to a bunch of people, including your engineering team, the HR staff, and the technical recruiting team. My presentation is this week; I am both excited and nervous. Although I’ve been working in the office, I’ve visited the field several times to see all the equipment and watch work being done on the wells.
My outfit when I visit the field
In addition to working, I’ve had a lot of fun with other Aera interns. Aera hosts organized intern events every week like dinners or bowling (always with free food, which is the best). Not only did I get to know the intern class, but the HR staff and many new hires as well. Most weekends I traveled with other interns to sightsee. I visited San Diego for the first time this summer, and it was beautiful. Bakersfield itself is fun as well; there’s delicious food to eat and several good hikes nearby.
Hiking in Big Sur
Cute tiger brothers at San Diego Zoo
After I finish my internship this Friday, I’ll be driving back to Denver. It should be a scenic route along I-70. Although I will miss my fellow interns very much, I am definitely excited to see my family again. I plan on doing a lot of camping and hiking in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains.
Hope you’re enjoying your summer, and Fight On!
