Unconventional reserves fuelling recruiter needs for skilled personnel

OilCareers.com today announced that it has seen a significant rise in the amount of roles offered by recruiters in relation to unconventional resources in the energy sector.

While shale gas owns the news agenda worldwide, regions such as Canada, Europe, Australia and the Middle East have also placed a focus on other unconventional resources such as natural gas, gas condensates, crude oil, tight gas, coal bed methane, oil sands and heavy oil reserves to help in meeting global energy demands.

Mark Guest, managing director of OilCareers.com said, “While it is clear that unconventional reserves present an exciting prospect for many organisations, natural resources require greater levels of technology and investment from oil and gas majors accelerating the need for skills to extract these assets.

“This need for experienced manpower has led to a need for robust recruitment strategies from organisations. Statistics from OilCareers.com highlight that there has been a 23% increase in staff roles in comparison to a year ago, with staff roles again overtaking contract roles as the most in demand year on year.

“The shift from contract to permanent roles is a trend that can be seen worldwide as there has never been more pressure on recruiters to capture the experienced workforce.”

Canada has been heavily publicised as housing the third-largest amount of recoverable oil sands with the province of Alberta reported as containing an estimated 170 billion barrels of reserves. Investment has been recognised by the UK, with the region signalling support for the EU import of Canadian tar sands oil.

The importance of unconventional reserves to the energy industry is further endorsed by the Middle East with Qatar owning the title of leading exporter of LNG, along with the US shale gas boom in North America. The UK has hopes of replicating this with it being reported that one energy company holding a UK shale gas license has vastly increased the estimate of gas that it is sitting on, with the amount thought to be enough to meet the UK’s needs for an estimated 60 years.

Further afield, Australia currently has 15 LNG trains in construction across the region with a mode average start up date of 2015. As a result it is estimated to overtake Qatar as the top LNG exporter by 2020. Shell, the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is reported as looking to invest up to $30 billion of investment in Australia over the next five years, cementing its place as one of Australia’s largest foreign investors.

Mark Guest added, “Such high levels of investment globally means there is a distinct need across the energy sector for individuals between the ages of 35-55 with over five years experience in order to provide a crucial passage of information to the younger generation. This is identified in The Global Oil & Gas Workforce Survey: Expectations for hires and pay rates in the oil and gas industry (H1) 2013 which revealed 20% of recruiters highlight the biggest industry training issue as the lack of skilled trainers.

“Competition between recruiters has never been greater, with organisations offering attractive packages to ensure they secure the talent needed to extract the most potential from their assets. We have seen inflation in salaries worldwide as oil and gas majors compete for experienced individuals with a skill set that is adaptable to new technologies.

“Beyond this, it is also crucial for employers to promote the oil and gas industry as an affluent and sustainable career path to ensure a flow of new entrants to the industry. Many companies already implement graduate and apprenticeship schemes as well as training and development programmes to nurture and progress young talent.”