WORK


Still going strong


THE North Sea may be a mature oil and gas basin, but it continues to provide engineers with exciting challenges as exploration goes into deeper waters and production becomes more automated – and older production facilities need decommissioning. It’s not just offshore where the action


is, as there is also a great variety of career opportunities onshore with the supply chain of services and products, supporting domestic North Sea activity as well as international markets.


As the North Sea oil and gas industry has


reached maturity, most new developments are smaller in scale compared with the earlier giants such as Forties and Brent in the 1970s. However, there is great interest in the North Sea, particularly the area west of the Shetland Isles where several fields have been discovered in deep waters. For example, Chevron’s Rosebank/Lachnagar reservoir complex lies at a depth of 1,115 metres and


There is a great variety of career opportunities onshore


8


the company believes it “may turn out to be the largest UK discovery made on the UK Atlantic Frontier” – no doubt, presenting engineers with some unique challenges. Chevron says a final investment decision is planned for 2013. The sustained high price of oil has buoyed


North Sea activity recently. According to oil and gas analysts Wood Mackenzie, capital investment reached £7.5 billion (US$12.4 billion) in 2011, an all-time high, and they expect investment to stay consistently high until at least 2014, as new fields are brought into development and incremental projects on existing fields are moved forward, including more than £2bn (US$3 billion) expected investment in 2012 in the West of Shetlands area. With this continued activity, oil and gas


expertise is at a premium. OPITO, the oil and gas industry skills organisation, expects the industry to recruit an extra 10,000 people over the next five years with a big demand particularly for professional engineers, skilled craftspeople and technical staff. In its recent Labour Market Intelligence


Survey Report, carried out in partnership with Skills Development Scotland, OPITO warns of an emerging skills shortage within many areas.


DIG DEEPER...


For more information, go to www.talentscotland.com/oilandgas


Long chain of expertise


Oil and gas has been successfully extracted from the North Sea since the early 1970s, so it’s no surprise to learn that a vast wealth of expertise and technology has been developed since this time – and is still developing to meet the changing needs of the industry. The sector has expertise in the design, building, and operation phases of


offshore projects as well as providing specialist skills in the areas of exploration and appraisal, reservoir management, well drilling, facilities, health and safety, environment and decommissioning projects.


www.talentscotland.com/oilandgas


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