The forbidding steppes of Kazakhstan; Siberia's frozen wasteland; the sweltering oilfields of the Middle East and Nigeria. One of the drawbacks - or attractions - of working in the oil and gas sector is that remote locations are par for the course. Forget office comforts: wherever the black stuff is to be found, the industry goes too.

It is the same story with postgraduate degrees. Almost all UK oil and gas masters are concentrated in Scotland's wet and wild north, where most of our drilling and exploration activity takes place. Robert Gordon, Aberdeen and Dundee universities all offer worthwhile programmes.

The qualifications for the industry might once have been a ruthless aptitude for turning black into gold and a taste for danger, but these days entrants are more likely to need a science degree, or for some jobs a masters.

A postgraduate qualification is a prerequisite for a technical role in an oil company, such as a geologist or geophysicist, says Professor Jonathan Redfern, the director of the petroleum geoscience masters degree at Manchester University. “Most oil companies do not take graduates in exploration or drilling unless they have a good science degree and an MSc.”

The course aims to give students all the practical tools they need to hit the rigs running. It attracts large numbers of foreign students from around the world as well as UK students. They specialise in disciplines such as reservoir modelling and exploration before going to work for companies including ExxonMobil and Shell.

But for those considering going into non-technical areas such as marketing or consulting, a postgraduate qualification is less important. “Although this is of value, a career at Shell is not limited to people holding oil and gas-related masters,” says Nick Brown, Shell's marketing manager for graduate recruitment in the UK and Ireland.

“We look for evidence of a combination of personal strengths such as strong analytical skills, a drive to get things done and ability to work effectively with others, across cultural, geographic and organisational barriers.”

A fascination with remote rigs, far-flung refineries and a willingness to get your hands dirty will not hurt either.

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