The challenges of developing oil and gas resources in unconventional plays and in the deepwater have raised the bar for geosciences and petroleum engineering professionals and heightened the importance of human resource (HR) management at exploration and production (E&P) companies, according to the latest survey from Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC).

“In parallel, the E&P industry is going through the ‘big crew change’ in which the generations of geoscientists and petroleum engineers, or ‘petrotechnical’ professionals (PTP), hired before the sweeping recruitment cuts of the mid-1980s are now approaching retirement,” the management consultancy arm of Paris-based Schlumberger said in its 2011 Oil & Gas Human Resources Benchmark Survey.

“High-growth companies have more technical resources proportionately and more pragmatic HR policies than low growth companies. This year’s survey [the eighth] attracted a record number of respondents with 37 participating upstream companies accounting for approximately 37% of global oil and gas production.”

According to the survey, an outflow of more than 22,000 senior key PTPs will occur by 2015, equating to a net loss of more than 5,500 experienced PTPs in the same timeframe. The recruitment of new graduates will compensate this loss in total net numbers of PTPs, but it will not fill the experience gap, according to researchers.

“Of the respondents in the 2011 survey, up to 70% of national oil companies, 60% of major international oil companies, and 45% of independent companies acknowledged project delays due to staffing difficulties.”

Those with the knowledge and skills to get gas and oil out of the ground have a bright future, given the trends among E&P professionals.

According to the “Oil & Gas Global Salary Guide 2012,” a 32-page report released earlier this year by the Australian consulting firm Hays plc and Oil and Gas Job Search, an industry jobs website, global permanent salaries in the industry averaged $80,458 a year in 2011, a 6.1% increase from 2010’s average of $75,813 (see Daily GPI, Feb. 9).

Companies participating in the SBC survey reported mid-career recruitment targets that were significantly higher in 2011 than in 2010 with an increase of more than 60% by the majors, which are being severely hit by the retirement of senior PTPs. The imbalance in supply and demand of experienced PTPs has resulted in an increase in attrition. Attrition in the geosciences now varies from 4-5% on average versus 2.6-4% in 2010. For petroleum engineers, turnover ranges from 4.5-7% in 2011 versus 3.5-6% a year earlier.

Oil-rich developing countries have become increasingly ambitious in their targets for national recruitment by local subsidiaries of foreign operating companies. The trend toward nationalization of talent within the E&P industry is a challenge in many countries where there is often a lack of experienced local staff, especially in emerging oil and gas producing nations, the survey found. It is not unusual for regulatory bodies to set recruitment targets for nationals at 80-90% of middle management positions.

The survey showed that high-growth companies, whose portfolios often contain unconventional or deepwater assets, employ more technical people than their lower-growth peers. The lower-growth companies with complex portfolios and fewer PTPs may only demonstrate production growth of 0.5-2% per year, the survey found. Complex hydrocarbon exploitation coupled with a high number of PTPs show a statistical correlation to higher growth.

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