Posted on 02/17/2014 4:56:56 AM PST by thackney
The oil and gas industry is not running out of smart people, its running out of experienced people, according to a report by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA).
"The industry will have to go through a period of time where it will operate without that history," the report stated.
Australia has experienced labor shortages for a couple of years, creating a backlog of projects, and this backlog is expected to grow in the next five years. More than $200 billion worth of major gas projects will move from the construction phase into the production phase, creating 22,000 new jobs in the industry by 2018. Once these projects hit production, a greater focus on skills development is needed to ensure the industry avoids an under-supply of critical skills in the future, the report stated.
Furthermore, the student professor ratio at universities has almost tripled in the last 15 years.
"One of the problems is not with the student going into the industry but is with the professor leaving the university," AWPA said. "The industry offers the professor more money to work for them rather than stay to educate the next batch of engineers. This is a huge challenge."
In the next five to seven years, an opportunity will arise for a new generation workforce to come into the industry and run it, the report added.
"That's why the future belongs to the digital engineers – it is not something that is desirable, it is inevitable."
WHAT IS A DIGITAL ENGINEER?
The new crop of engineers are privy to new technology (the latest and greatest technology that has created the American shale boom), new speed of applications and solutions and workflow that are allowing one to gain greater insight to tackle the challenges of the industry moving forward.
"The trend of field instrumentation is incredible," the report added. "Today you have massive data available in onshore, ultra deep offshore, but how the industry uses that data is what counts."
The challenge that the industry faces is how will experts gain greater insight of a reservoir to come up with more oil and gas, and produce oil safer; and according to this report, the answer is the young engineer.
"The next generation will be more IT fluent – the petroleum engineers, the geologists will be friendlier to the IT technology. Today's generations have better networks at home than they do at work," according to the report.
When this new engineer searches for data compiled 10 years ago in their company's search engine, they can't find what they need, so they rely on the human network. They seek out the person who remembers when the study was done. However, this human network will be extinct in the next decade.
"This is an IT literate generation with high IT expectations when they enter the workforce, so why isn't this the 'A' day of digital oilfield information?" the report added. "The technology vendors are baffled why the oil and gas industry is slow to take up this new technology."
SKILLS EMPLOYERS SHOULD LOOK FOR
"The newest engineering grad has to be better than the last generation with regards to their technical expertise but in addition, they need a breath in economic, international business, culture, change management, and IT in order to become a well-rounded professional that will be successful in this industry," AWPA said.
"The company that will take advantage of all these important technology trends will be one that has a literate IT petroleum workforce, business literate IT professional workforce and a group of people in the middle that will be able to blend and mix these skills and opportunities together to make all these work."
meanwhile, over at the colleges, enrollment in gander studies, the art of female sexuality, and feminism, are increasing...
Petroleum engineering enrollment is growing at a rate that hasn’t been seen since the early 1980s...
The number of incoming freshmen in petroleum engineering surged 55 percent, to 2,153 from 1,388 between the fall of 2011 and the fall of 2012...
“Petroleum engineering enrollment is growing at a rate that hasn’t been seen since the early 1980s...”
Yeah, I recall talking to an A&M PE grad of ‘84. He graduated with 350 other PE grads that year - only two got jobs. He was not one of them.
Today, he is a VP of Chevron, one of the smartest engineers I met.
Beware of the cycles in the O&G industry. I got laid off after 27 years.
Many forget history, which is doomed to repeat itself.
That is always good advice. I've had a hard time trying to bring that message home to young engineers starting in a boom time.
The only real security you can make is being good at what you do, and be ready to accept changes that may likely include relocation.
Good money can be made in this industry. But you need to provide your own security, including plans to be without work for a time. My longest period was 3 months, but that was due a lot to my not taking serious the concern of finding new work.
Hey, it's good enough for the goose.
Being a part of this new generation myself (early 30’s), and in IT I can say kids getting into and out of college right now aren’t necessarily “tech savvy”. They may know how to utilize existing technology, but most of it has been extremely dumbed down to cater to them.
When I was a kid I was tearing apart my 386 and swapping parts trying to make it faster on my own. That’s how I learned. Everything is throw away now including tablets and cell phones. Kids aren’t being pushed to learn how to fix anything really.
Many, that are just getting into IT are doing it because they were sold a bill of goods by a college or high school guidance councilor. To them a PC is just a toaster they grew up with... Another appliance that just “works”.
I’m not entirely sure that’s entirely correct. Seems to me being “tech-savvy” in today’s world has a LOT more to do with software than hardware. The hacker as opposed to the soldering iron jockey.
But then, since I’m neither, I might be entirely wrong.
“That is always good advice. I’ve had a hard time trying to bring that message home to young engineers starting in a boom time.
The only real security you can make is being good at what you do, and be ready to accept changes that may likely include relocation.
Good money can be made in this industry. But you need to provide your own security, including plans to be without work for a time. My longest period was 3 months, but that was due a lot to my not taking serious the concern of finding new work.
“
Really true. I recruited campuses for years and the youngsters forget there are cycles, thinking that the good times never end.
Houston was a barren place in the early ‘80s when this was forgotten.
I love the O&G industry. Like owning a wild creature, one needs a healthy respect at all times.
Great analogy. I've worked in Oil/Gas/PetroChem for a couple decades. We also own a barrel racing horse. When neither gives you problems, you can develop some bad habits by not respecting the fact your actual control of the situation can be limited at times.
That’s true, my point is more geared towards the current generation being dumbed down by disposable tech like phones and tablets. I just don’t think these devices are helping people become better with technology.
The oil business is chicken one week, feathers the next. My kid brother is one of these digital engineers. Has an undergrad degree in geology. He’s making money hand over fist right now and socking a good deal of it away. My family has been in this business for 3 generations now. We’ve seen the boom/bust up close and in person several times.
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