This is an account of my internship with Chevron. It was part of my course requirement. At first, I saw the opening on NUS Talent Connect, which is an online job listing platform aimed to help NUS students and alumni alike to find jobs, internships, etc. The application process is typical, but there is an interesting story to share during the interview.

Hot and Humid

On the day of the interview, I was not prepared for the hot and humid weather of Singapore. The sun was blazingly hot and from the MRT station, I still need to walk about 300 metres to the office building. Within minutes, my shirt was literally drenched in sweat and I was panicking. It is not the best to show up to an interview with a sweaty wet shirt. With only 20 minutes left to the scheduled interview, I ran as fast as I can to the nearest shopping mall, bought a new formal shirt, and ran back to the office. Fortunately, I managed to change in time and walk into the interview while still trying to catch my breath.

The interview was relaxed and enjoyable. Basic knowledge of the industries, case studies, and personal character evaluation was several of the topics discussed. Thanks to the extremely informative interviewer, I ended up learning about the oil market rather than being tested on it.

An Interesting Time to Learn Crude Oil Trading

Working as a commercial analyst supporting the crude oil trading team means I was exposed to various market parameters. In short, all of these parameters falls under two categories, supply and demand. We might have heard the term supply-demand a lot of time and think that it is a simple thing. In my opinion, it is simple in concept but extremely complex to predict.

I joined Chevron in a very interesting time, decorated with many international events. Starting with the US–Iran tension early in 2020, Libyan unrest, OPEC+ deals, Saudi – Russia Oil Wars, and the mighty COVID-19 with the market crash that followed it to name a few. Although all of them are definitely bad bor the business in general, but in terms of learning experience it is a great opportunity to observe and appreciate how everything is interconnected in the supply-demand world.

One of the most memorable moments was during the oil price crash following Saudi declaration to pumps up their oil production albeit the oversupplied market. I was reading market news the night before (as part of my task) and the price was still around $20/barrels, and in the morning, it was sub-zero. I was dumbfounded when I see the numbers for the first time.

Projects and Improvements

As part of my allocated tasks, I was responsible to keep an eye on the market movement. Crude oil consumption by regional refineries, crude and product prices, refineries availability and market movements are some of the parameters I regularly check and report to the traders.

Initially, most of these tasks must be done manually which consumes time and also prone to human error. The data itself is huge which further increases the chance of error. I took the initiative to automate most of the tasks, using my prior knowledge and also a new tool (Microsoft Power Automate) which were taught by one of my colleagues. In the end, I managed to cut down the time required to do the analysis from roughly 2-3 hours down to just 15-30 minutes.

There was another time my supervisor asked me to help her to develop a new analysis tool regarding crude oil consumption trends for refineries in the region. I was given raw data and managed to processed it into meaningful and neat data. However, the challenge was sustainability. As the data was obtained straight from customs reports, the format will change eventually in the future and I tried my best to make the tool flexible enough to handle the inevitable changes.

Apart from the main tasks, I was also given some ad-hoc tasks which again require quite a lot of manual work. Being lazy in terms of handling repetitive manual work, I again created an automated system to simplify my work.

It was until the start of the circuit breaker (full quarantine) in Singapore that I was assigned a new task, to conduct team building events for the team during the work-from-home period. I was grateful for the help of my colleague and manager to make the event more interesting through creative choice of games and handsome prizes. Unfortunately as one of the organizers, I was not able to win the prize :’).

An Encouraging Work Environment

One thing I deeply remember from Chevron is the superbly encouraging work environment. Since the first day I came to the office, I have always encouraged to ask and learn as much as I can. My supervisor also tried her best to hand-over tasks that have learning value for me most of the time, ensuring that I understand the reason and significance before I work on them.

Another thing I noticed is how much Chevron emphasizes its employee wellbeing. The first day I work in the office, the safety officer came to my desk to set my workstation based on my height, arm length, etc. It was one of a kind. They also have a small widget in their PCs which prompts us to stop working and take a break regularly (by prompting I mean forcefully locking the screen so you can not do anything but take a break).

Summary

In the end, I can say that my internship with Chevron is one of the best that I had so far. I learned a lot from them both in technical knowledge as well as soft skills. I was also able to see the oil industry, and all other business, in a bigger picture. Where all are governed by the balance of supply and demand.

That’s all I can tell about my internship with Chevron. I hope it can I want to use this opportunity to thank my supervisor and all the other co-worker who have supported me throughout the internship. Not forgetting the fellow interns who made the internship colorful.

Post-internship lunch with the fellow interns

Fun Facts
  • I drank tea a lot at the office! To the point that the farewell gift from my manager and other colleagues are also teas.

One of the tea gifted to me at the end of the internship. It is one of the best tea I've ever had.