abce certificate
Friday, 05 December, 2008, 17:20 GMT | more >>

Human capital gap 'threatens safety'



By Upstream staff 

Low investment in human capital in the energy industry has created a global shortage of skilled labour which poses a serious threat to safety, a major oil company chief told a gas conference today.

Malaysian oil company Petronas's chief executive Hassan Marican told the World Gas Conference in Amsterdam the energy industry had been ignoring the problem for too long.

"Today we face global shortage (of skilled staff) in every part of the industry chain. I raise this issue not because it's increasing our costs but because I'm seriously concerned about the safety element," Marican said.

"The chances of a major incident cannot be ignored and if it happens, hopefully not, it would put the industry (years) back," the head of Malaysia's state oil and gas company said.

Oil and gas firms around the world have seen costs rising partly due to the shortage of skilled labour, as the average age of engineers in the industry approaches 50 years, analysts say.

Officials at Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell have said the industry faces losing half of its existing workforce to retirement within 10 years, with the average age of workers now standing at more than 45 years old.

Industry officials warned last month that oil and gas explorers in Australia's waters could be forced to scale down their activities due to a global shortage of skilled labour and equipment.

"Investment in human capital is very low ... Labour is thin everywhere," Petronas's Marican said.

"We have been too preoccupied - and that's because of the high oil price probably - with optimising and cost efficiency that we have forgotten the most important element."

The chief executive of US oil major Chevron, Dave O'Reilly, told the conference the industry had to start promoting itself at schools and universities to attract young labour.

He attributed the shortage of skilled workers partly due to the fact that the energy industry had been viewed as a bad career opportunity for decades.

"We are competing for the same resources now, but we'd better grow new ones," O'Reilly said.


Wednesday, 07 June, 2006, 17:36 GMT  | last updated: Wednesday, 07 June, 2006, 20:56 GMT

e-mail this article to a colleague


to email:  from:
comments: