Automation & Control
Fig. 1. According to The Society of Petroleum Engineers, the average age of a petroleum worker is 51 years old. Nearly 60 per cent are 45 or older.
4 Dr Paul Turner looks at how advanced process control can enhance safety across the process industries.
Solve the skills shortage and protect asset safety
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n the past, process engineering companies have benefited from access to experienced talent in the form of control/process engineers, operators and general IT staff. This situation is unlikely to continue for much longer. Thousands of engineers are on the brink of retirement and there is a lack of staff with the requisite expertise to replace them. With companies looking at rationalising assets
and markets pressurised, this situation is unlikely to get any better - at least not for the foreseeable future. The problem is particularly serious in the
chemicals, oil and gas sectors. According to The Society of Petroleum Engineers, the average age of a petroleum worker is 51 years old. Nearly 60 per cent are 45 or older.
This peak in the profile of workers suggests that approximately 40 per cent of the workforce will be lost over the next decade.
Keeping assets secure
The growing knowledge gap raises some serious issues and concerns when it comes to health and safety. The skills shortages issue needs to be addressed if companies also - are to come to terms with the growing problem of their maturing and sometimes decaying assets, which raise serious worries about their structural integrity. Asset safety is brought into further jeopardy by
high staff turnover, accelerating the rate of loss of knowledge about the way the asset works. Skills shortages throughout the industry inevitably lead to greater use of third-party
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