Scarce Resources: The Oil & Gas Industry Fighting a Two-Front Battle
The run up in oil prices from 2005-2007 that saw gasoline prices in excess of $4 also propelled strong recruiting programs from operators, service companies and tool manufacturers. The rapid hiring pace and attractive compensation packages aimed to offset the effects of what the oil & gas industry calls the great “crew change.” This refers to the pending mass retirement of thousands of the energy sector’s most crucial experts and the lack of a qualified generation of new recruits to replenish the ranks.
This equation changed in Q4 2008 as the energy cycle went from crest to trough--seemingly overnight. Since then thousands of jobs have been eliminated, compounding the talent gap issue that was recently highlighted by Christopher Helman in a FORBES article entitled Big Oil Worries About The Next Boom. As Mr. Helman observed:
“What's the biggest concern facing [Schlumberger Business Consulting executive Antoine] Rostand's clients now? ‘Whether they will have enough people to face the surge in demand in three to five years from now.’ This is interesting for several reasons. First, that oil companies expect a surge in demand when the global economy recovers. Second, that they're not worried about Peak Oil--the pessimist dogma that oilfields have been run down so much that supply growth will soon be impossible. (Says Rostand, ‘There's enough resources to provide the oil that the world will need for many years to come.’) Rather the worry is that oil and gas companies, Schlumberger included, that cut hundreds of staff when prices plunged, won't have enough hands on deck to develop new resources fast enough when demand growth returns.”
The employers of these highly educated knowledge workers responsible for producing oil & gas in some of our planet’s harshest drilling and production environments are now at a crossroads. With the number of experts remaining relatively flat over the next several years and production environments becoming more far flung, producing the next billion barrels will quite literally require these individuals to be in multiple places at once. Instead of waiting for the crew change, many upstream and midstream firms are opting to change the way the crew works to maximize productivity.
This is one of the primary reasons Reality Mobile, Chevron, the Dobson Partnership and Energy Ventures see such promise for the RealityVision® software platform to deliver value in this industry. A workforce multiplier, RealityVision allows the experts to instantly see what is happening in the field securely--anywhere, anytime. Aligning experts with assets will continue to be paramount to solving tomorrow’s energy needs.
Connecting hundreds or thousands of people in this way can dramatically increase the efficiency of geologists, drilling engineers and petrophysicists who must be called upon to produce revenue from these disparate assets. Reducing needless travel can also create another degree of leverage and productivity from this specialized class. With RealityVision, oil & gas companies don’t have to let the location of an asset define or limit what solutions the expert can prescribe. What once required extensive travel can now be handled with relative ease—from a smartphone at home on the weekend or from a laptop at the office.
RealityVision brings the right expertise to bear on the situation instantly in order to speed remediation and maintain production. For these firms revenue isn’t necessarily generated in a conference room but rather at the drilling site or wellhead. Whether the platform is in West Africa or the violent North Sea, putting these expensive and scarce intellectual resources in harm’s way can be a serious liability for operators and oilfield service crews alike. RealityVision instantly provides a common operational picture for operators whether the site is in the next county or opposite hemisphere. For a cyclical industry with such a pronounced shortage of qualified personnel, this is nothing short of game-changing. RealityVision is the platform that can help the oil & gas industry win this two-front battle for both human and hydrocarbon resources.