Critical industries · NCES IPEDS, 2015–2022
Petroleum
Reservoir engineering, drilling and production. The degree is named for the industry, which is rare: most engineering doctorates carry no industry in their title.
85.3%
of research doctorates in this field go to non-residents
+58.3 points against the 27.0% national figure
943
doctorates awarded in the window
804 of them to non-residents
16
institutions award this doctorate at all
the whole national capacity
72.8%
the share in 2025, the most recent year published
no federal access regime applies by default
No federal access restriction by default
No export-control or access-authorisation regime applies by default. Open to anyone with the right to work in the United States.
The American share, by award level
The same field at three levels, in 2025. The subject does not change. Only the level does.
| Level | Awarded to Americans | Share American | Awarded to non-residents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 284 | 68.6% | 130 | 414 |
| Master's | 53 | 28.0% | 136 | 189 |
| Doctorate | 28 | 27.2% | 75 | 103 |
Americans take 68.6% of the 414 bachelor’s degrees in this field and 28.0% of the 189 master’s degrees. The American share falls 40.6 points between the two, and the graduate degree is the one these industries hire from. See the master’s expansion for the same comparison across every field. A row resting on a few dozen awards moves on one student, so read the small ones with the award count beside them.
The programmes behind the number
Every CIP code this page counts, and what each contributes. Disagree with the mapping and you can see exactly which rows to drop.
| Programme | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petroleum Engineering CIP 14.2501 | 85.3% | 943 | 804 |
Where it is taught
The institutions awarding these doctorates, largest first. Ten or more over the window.
| Institution | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas A&M University-College Station | 82.1% | 196 | 161 |
| The University of Texas at Austin | 84.4% | 160 | 135 |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | 86.3% | 102 | 88 |
| Colorado School of Mines | 85.7% | 70 | 60 |
| University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus | 83.6% | 61 | 51 |
| University of Tulsa | 93.3% | 60 | 56 |
| Missouri University of Science and Technology | 90.4% | 52 | 47 |
| Texas Tech University | 87.0% | 46 | 40 |
| Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College | 81.6% | 38 | 31 |
| University of Wyoming | 94.4% | 36 | 34 |
| Stanford University | 85.2% | 27 | 23 |
| 495767 | 87.5% | 24 | 21 |
| University of Houston | 73.9% | 23 | 17 |
| University of Southern California | 73.7% | 19 | 14 |
| University of North Dakota | 89.5% | 19 | 17 |
| New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 90.0% | 10 | 9 |
The share since 1995
Non-resident share of the doctorates awarded each year, against the national figure for all fields.
The line runs the full published history. The headline 85.3% above is pooled over 2015–2022. That is the window this site uses everywhere. The two figures answer different questions and will not match. Years with fewer than 20 doctorates nationally are omitted: a share computed on a dozen degrees moves on one student.
Method and limits
- A CIP code is a field of study. Nobody in this data is observed working in the industry it is matched to.
- The battery entry is a proxy built from materials programmes, because IPEDS publishes no battery category.
- Shares are of degrees awarded, not of the current workforce. A doctorate awarded in 2016 may have left the country or the field.
- 'Non-resident alien' is the IPEDS reporting category: a student on a temporary visa. Permanent residents are counted as domestic.
- The restriction note states the law as written. It is not an observed hiring outcome. This data cannot show who was employed, under what authorisation, or whether they stayed.
- Export control, access authorisation and a security clearance are three different things. Only a DOE L or Q access authorisation requires US citizenship.
Built by scripts/build_critical_industries.py from
NCES IPEDS Completions, research doctorates, 2015-2022.
Compare the others on the hub.