Hi,

Yes, PEs will always be needed as long as we use oil which will be the case for the rest of the century. Look up oil consumption projections and in every case, we are growing our use of oil for the next 20 years. Beyond that even as our consumption has peaked, you’ll still need PEs to maintain production even when demand is falling. And then beyond that, as water resources become more scarce, PEs will shift into managing aquifers.

All this is based on the classical interpretation of PE as it pertains to reservoir engineering.