Tackling the Talent Challenge

by Eve Sprunt

The buzz at this year's World Petroleum Congress (WPC) isn't just about rising oil prices and the role of technology in providing needed energy. It's also about energy professionals – the need to recruit and retain the people who are at the core of everything we do.

In the midst of a hiring boom in the oil and gas industry, how do energy companies sweeten their appeal to critical talent such as geologists, engineers, chemists and information technology professionals?

That's a big question, touching upon a lot of issues, including when and how many of the "baby boomers," as they're called in the United States, will opt to retire. There are 77 million baby boomers – people born from 1946 to 1964 – in the United States alone and millions more in Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan. Even in countries that don't have the same demographic bulge, competition for talent is growing.

Adding to the problem is that in some countries more students that once would have chosen careers in the oil and gas business are entering other fields.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1983 to 2002 the number of U.S. petroleum engineers plunged from 33,000 to 18,000. In the same time, industry geologists and geophysicists dropped from 65,000 to 48,000, and the number of U.S. universities with petroleum engineering programs dropped from 34 to 19.

More than ever, "strategic staffing" is top-of-mind here. Chevron is meeting the challenge head on:

• A new, global Chevron University Partnership Program targets 18 top schools (11 outside the United States) to expand recruiting and research relationships worldwide;
• Chevron Energy Technology Co. has mounted a major initiative to engage key technical employees and to find and hire new talent.

But we're clearly not alone in trying to find solutions to the staffing needs.

One of the papers presented during the conference was written by Dr. Raymond Akpojivi of the Petroleum Training Institute in Nigeria.

The paper looks at the role of the government of African nations and at the place of academia-oil company synergy in promoting training of the oil sector's local workforce to meet the present and future needs in Africa. Dr. Akpojivi's presentation examines successful strategies employed by nations in other parts of the world and considers their adoptability or adaptability to the oil sector in Africa.

That's why the WPC forum is so valuable. It brings together other energy professionals from around the world, and we can learn from each other's experiences — and come up with better outcomes.

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Posted July 03, 2008 16:15 | Back to Blog