Combating skills gap in oil and gas: The PETRONAS model
Globally, skills shortage has been a source of growing concern in the oil and gas sector. Oil and gas companies are increasingly concerned about the quality of the applicant pool for jobs that are integral to sector.
A survey by Schlumberger Business Consulting estimated that 22,000 geoscientists and engineers will leave their jobs by 2015. And while the survey says that recruitment of new graduates will likely help close that gap substantially, the one area it cannot compensate for is the loss of experience.
In Nigeria, Esso Exploration and Production Company has invested N3 billion into Nigerian universities. Part of the investment is also targeted at equipping some Nigerian universities with the necessary infrastructure to ensure that skilled, well equipped and employable university graduates are produced by Nigerian universities in geosciences. Since 2006, ExxonMobil has spent an average of $250,000 per year on university programmes.
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders and some Nigerian universities has also teamed up to arrest the situation. Areas in the industry where the skills are lacking, they said, are geosciences, mechanical and electrical engineering, rig operations, among others.
One of the approaches by PTDF was the commencement of a retraining programme in which 550 Nigerians are already engaged in skills such as welding, which is very critical to the growth and development of the industry. Another set of 500 trainees would be retrained after the completion of the first set. The industry needs about 8,000 welders currently. The second approach is to streamline its scholarship programme for Nigerians that are sent abroad to ensure that they resume academic work on time in their intended schools. Another strategic move the agency has made is its collaboration with the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) so that those that are trained are sent to the agency for placement in various companies under the supervision of the NCDMB.
BusinesDay had reported that shortage of skills has denied indigenous oil servicing companies a significant share of the job opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry through exploration and production (E&P) activities, which have been estimated at about $17.5 billion annually.
The PETRONAS model
Petronas’ exploration and production (E&P) department has about 10,500 staff – accounting for 22.7 percent of its total workforce in 2012, for the firm’s 162 operating and non-operating upstream assets located in 23 countries, including Asia, Australia, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Petronas hired more in 2012 as a result of increased business activities, with its workforce rising 6.7 percent to 46,145, up from 43,266 in 2011.
PETRONAS acknowledged that petroleum companies face intense competition in the search for skilled talents to fill industry vacancies worldwide. With PETRONAS expected to be engaged in more upstream projects in Malaysia and around the world, the availability of appropriate staffing would be needed to ensure operational efficiency.
Petronas identified 13 job types that the global oil and gas industry needs to fill urgently, which include: Geologist, Petroleum Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Asset Management (Integrated Process Engineer), Techno Commercial, Marketing, Logistics, Plant Operations (Petrochemical), Health, Safety & Environment, Marine Operations (LNG), Tax & Accounting.
To help expand its global talent pool, the company developed the PETRONAS Overseas Talent Sponsorship (POTS) program. Through the POTS program, PETRONAS intends to cultivate innovation through diversity. The firm hopes to harness the diverse set of experiences, perspectives and backgrounds of the POTS candidates to drive innovation and spur new ideas which contribute to business sustainability.
Under POTS, successful overseas candidates will be offered an 18-month development program covering a comprehensive on-boarding course as well as leadership and development stimulations. In addition, they will pursue a post-graduate Master of Science (MSc.) program at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) in one of the following disciplines: petroleum engineering, process integration, petroleum geosciences, asset management and maintenance, and process control. PETRONAS revealed that another MSc. program in drilling might be added to the existing POTS disciplines, subject to approval by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia.
It has already selected the first batch of POTS applicants. The 11 POTS scholarship holders are from Britain, Colombia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. Six of these candidates will pursue a MSc. course in petroleum geoscience, three in asset management and maintenance, and the remaining two in petroleum engineering.
Embracing diversity as part of its corporate strategy is reflected in the number of overseas staff employed by the company, which stood at 21 percent in 2012.
PETRONAS, established in 1974 by the Malaysian government as the country’s national oil company (NOC), is currently one of the world’s most profitable firms and one of the most successful NOCs globally. It ranked 75 among the world’s largest corporations in 2012, with revenue of $94.3 billion and was the 19th most profitable firm with net proceeds of $16 billion, according to the 2013 Fortune Global 500 survey.
The Fortune Global 500 survey placed PETRONAS, a wholly-owned by the Malaysian government, as the sixth most profitable company in 2012, after Exxon Mobil, OAO Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Chevron Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp., but ahead of Total S.A.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM