Jun 2008 - OPEC

Human resources
he global energy system is at the heart of almost
everything we do. It impacts us as individuals,
as countries, and as a global community. And it is
clear that the growing interrelationships between
energy, economic growth, the protection of the environment
and social progress will see its importance
advance further.
To support such a global industry requires significant
human resources; important not only to the industry
today, but also to its future. Currently, however, there
are concerns as to the adequacy of the human resource
skills base, due to a number of factors.
These include a scaling back of the energy sector’s
recruitment in the last decades of the 20th T
century. Then,
many institutions significantly reduced the numbers taking
energy-related studies as the industry’s demand for
graduates lessened. It needs those numbers today. In
recent years, there has also been a dramatic expansion
in the service and emerging knowledge economies, which
has led to fierce competition for talent. Additionally,
there is a large section of the industry’s workforce, particularly
what many call the ‘baby boomers’ that entered
the industry in the 1970s, that are rapidly approaching
retirement.
Set alongside this has been the energy industry’s
recent considerable expansion that has led to calls for
more skilled personnel. Those calls have not always been
met. And going forward, it might be expected that these
calls will become even louder as the industry continues
to expand. What is clear, is that the energy industry, as a
whole, needs to expand and evolve its human resource
skills base.
A number of recent reports underline the industry’s
predicament. According to a survey by United Kingdombased
Energy Institute, Deloitte and Norman Broadbent,
which specializes in the search for executive talent in the
energy industry, over 70 per cent of energy companies
expect their future operations to be hit by shortages of
OPEC bulletin 6/08
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