[Zardoz]

I keep seeing comments about there being an "expertise" shortage in the petroleum industry worldwide. Seems a lot of experienced petroleum engineers are history, and there's nowhere near enough people coming up to replace them. Here's the only story on it I could find:

two decades of penny pinching during an era of low prices have taken their toll on the industrial capacity and expertise needed to bring new supplies online.

Engineering executives say one reason they are having trouble keeping up is that oil companies haven't invested enough in new production in recent decades to justify big work forces at the services giants. Thus oil-service providers face a shortage of professionals -- tens of thousands of whom have been laid off or have retired in the past 20 years or so.

"A lot of skilled people have either been laid off, or have retired from the industry in the last 18 years," said Schlumberger's Mr. Gould. "Recruiting and training their replacements takes time and requires a global approach."



Anybody else have anything on this? It looks like we have another factor to add to the list of reasons why production is not going to get ramped up to meet demand, even if there was plenty of oil to be had (which there isn't...).

[PolestaR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'I') keep seeing comments about there being an "expertise" shortage in the petroleum industry worldwide. Seems a lot of experienced petroleum engineers are history, and there's nowhere near enough people coming up to replace them. Here's the only story on it I could find:

two decades of penny pinching during an era of low prices have taken their toll on the industrial capacity and expertise needed to bring new supplies online.

Engineering executives say one reason they are having trouble keeping up is that oil companies haven't invested enough in new production in recent decades to justify big work forces at the services giants. Thus oil-service providers face a shortage of professionals -- tens of thousands of whom have been laid off or have retired in the past 20 years or so.

"A lot of skilled people have either been laid off, or have retired from the industry in the last 18 years," said Schlumberger's Mr. Gould. "Recruiting and training their replacements takes time and requires a global approach."



Anybody else have anything on this? It looks like we have another factor to add to the list of reasons why production is not going to get ramped up to meet demand, even if there was plenty of oil to be had (which there isn't...).

[grillzilla]

aapg member demographics:

AAPG members by age

SPE member demographics (scroll down to bottom for age chart)

SPE members

You'll note that 5% or so of the SPE members are geologists.

From personal experience I can say this. In the area where you live Zardoz the independent and major oil companies are busy trying to hire people away from one another. But gently, since everybody knows everybody and you don't know who you will be merging with next week.

Also I attend the local AAPG affiliate meetings here every once and a while, and we're all old. Very few new faces. We recently hired a young person away from a service company, a very bright individual, but does not actually have a degree in Petroleum Engineering (a different science degree) we are willing to train someone up and wait for the expertise to grow, that is how hard it is to find someone.
Of course the local real estate market doesnt help our case. We cant get anybody to move here to Southern California.

[EnergyDigger]

Are my comments last year coming home to roost ?

energyDigger