SINGAPORE: The booming oil and gas industry is on a hiring spree globally, with hundreds of thousands of technical professionals needed to power up the industry.
The oil and gas rich state of Western Australia alone needs at least 50,000 people to fill in vacancies over the next five years, managing director of Faststream Recruitment Mark Robertshaw estimated.
"The shortage is acute," he said. "I think the industry is pulling in talent from ... Europe, from America, and using those skill sets to transfer knowledge and also to support the growing industry here."
In Singapore, a study conducted by the authorities found that some 2,400 more technicians are needed to support the power sector in the next 10 years.
Recommendations on how to deal with the manpower shortage problem are expected to be out by the end of 2012.
According to the International Gas Union (IGU), the technical skills that are in high demand are in engineering, construction, projects and operations.
But massive layoffs in the eighties and nineties created an impression that the industry offers low job security.
President of IGU Abdul Rahim Hashim said, "The problem with the industry is it goes into a cycle. When oil prices are down, they tend to take people off the payroll, and when the prices are up, they try to recruit.
"This doesn't work, because this is a long-term business. You have to go in for the long term. You need to consistently recruit people, but at the same time, train people as required."
And with an ageing workforce -- the average age of workers in the industry is 45, according to IGU -- experts also raised the need to change young people's perception of the work environment in the industry.
Common images of those toiling in the oil fields may be true -- but not for all.
Jobs in a regular office environment, such as geologists, technical engineers and designers, are also available.
To tackle these problems, IGU will launch a series of youth-targeted programmes at the World Gas Conference in June.
- CNA/wm
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