Exploiting the industry skills shortage as a competitive advantage*
Piers TongeSchlumberger 8 Temasek Boulevard #25-02, Suntec Tower 3 Singapore 038988. Email: ptonge@slb.com
The APPEA Journal 50(2) 715-715 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ09079
Published: 2010
Abstract
Developing skilled petro-technical professionals (PTPs) has the greatest lead-time of any activity that oil and gas companies undertake today. Australia could double its gas production by 2020, which would create 50,000 new jobs. This will intensify competition for skilled petrotechnical professionals, and may drive up people costs.
The market for PTPs in Australia is tight today, with active competition for technical talent between the oil and gas industry and other extractive industries. Conventional and unconventional oil and gas projects on Australia’s west and east coasts are already chasing the same, limited, talent pool. Competition for experienced PTPs will be intensified by the impending crew change, with a disproportionate number of experienced PTPs due to retire from Australia’s oil and gas industry over the next decade.
Schlumberger Business Consulting has been benchmarking the people situation in the global oil and gas industry for the past six years, and working with exploration and production companies to address it. This paper will present our analysis of the global, and Australian, situation, with quantification of the skill balance through our demand and supply model. It will also highlight specific technical skills that will be in short supply, implications of the skills shortage, as well as potential mitigations to create competitive advantage.
Keywords: human resource, HR, benchmark, Australia labour market, labour market, competitive advantage, strategy, skills shortage, demographics, population, technical staff, capability, labour, people, talent, contractors, retirees, graduates, geoscientist, petroleum engineers, petrotechnical professionals, juniors, seniors, skills, competencies, resource planning, recruitment, development, training, coaching, retention
Piers Tonge was appointed Area Director for SBC in Asia in 2004. For the past 20 years, Piers has lived and consulted across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He advises energy companies’ senior management on: strategy; organisation; capability; and operational improvement issues. Piers began his career in oil and gas exploration in the Middle East, before moving into consulting at the energy and utility division of Arthur D. Little. Piers holds a BSc in geology, and an MSc in shipping, trade and finance from CASS Business School, London. |
