The Great Crew Change...

The great crew change: tens of thousands of oil and gas industry professionals are nearing the end of their careers

HARALD PETTERSEN/STATOIL

By ROB WATTS and BLAKE WRIGHT London and Houston

 27 September 2012 22:59 GMT

AROUND the world — from Houston to Aberdeen, Perth to Calgary — tens of thousands of oil industry professionals are nearing the end of their careers.

Many are the engineers, geologists and other petro-people who survived the savage culls of the 1980s, brought on by the low price of oil at the time.

According to Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC), more than 22,000 senior petrotechnical professionals are set to leave the industry by 2015.

It is predicted they will be replaced by a mere 16,500, equating to a net loss of more than 5500 personnel.

According to SBC, new graduates will help make up the shortfall. However, no matter how bright or able these new entrants are, they will lack crucial…

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