Petroleum industry ‘facing shortage of skilled workers’

MANAMA: A senior Saudi Aramco official warned yesterday that the petroleum industry is facing a tremendous skills shortage which, if goes unchecked will undermine its ability to meet world demands.

“As our workforce ages we fall short of young engineers to take their place,” the company’s senior vice-president for exploration and production Abd Alla S Al Saif said.


“Nearly half of our workforce is less than 30 years of age. Furthermore, surveys suggest that in the next few years more than 60 per cent of our engineers will have less than 10 years of experience.

“The required young professionals were difficult to find,” he said.

Enrolments in university programmes were declining as young people were opting for other fields for job opportunities.

Gulf Daily News