INDUSTRY NEWS
SCOTLAND’S OIL AND GAS INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION REMAINS STRONG IN CHALLENGING TIMES
International activity from Scotland’s oil and gas supply chain continued to account for just over half of its total sales during 2015/16, at 50.9%, demonstrating the continued strong demand across the globe for Scotland’s skills, experience and expertise.
Scottish Enterprise’s annual Survey of International Activity in the Oil and Gas Sector shows the sector delivered £11.4 billion of international sales, made up of £4.1 billion of direct exports and £7.3 billion of sales via international subsidiaries.
The research also reported an increase from 115 to 130 in the number of countries Scotland trades with and sales to non oil and gas markets have increased to £0.8 billion, over four times the figure in 2012, suggesting an increase in diversification focus from the sector.
According to the survey, the United States, Norway, Netherlands, Australia and Canada were the top five markets for international activity during 2015. Looking ahead, and similar to last year, the United States, Norway and the United Arab Emirates remain the top three countries for growth opportunities in the immediate future and over the next five years.
With its headquarters in Aberdeen and offices in Abu dhabi and kuala Lumpur, Aberdeen Drilling Consultants (ADC) is no stranger to working internationally. The firm operates worldwide inspecting rigs, BOP’s and their complex software controlled systems. Recently, the company has been working with Scottish Development International to grow its international ambition and at the end of last year, announced it had set up an office in Houston to maximise opportunities in the region. The company is currently based in Scottish Development International’s incubator space.
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR DIGITAL EXPERTS AS OIL & GAS SECTOR ADAPTS TO AGE OF LOWER PRICES
The oil and gas industry urgently needs digital natives – but the right people may not be looking at the sector as a potential career choice. That is one of the key messages from Petroplan’s second ‘Talent Insight Index’. Just over a third of respondents pointed to the growing need for IT skills, as technological advances combine with the need to reduce costs and improve efficiency to make the digital oilfield a reality.
Meeting this need will take a combination of recruitment of fresh talent from outside the sector, and upskilling of existing staff. The latter is something that will certainly be appreciated by the workforce, with opportunities to learn on the job a key benefit sought by both permanent and contract workers. With over three quarters of respondents
actively looking for a job, thinking beyond salaries, health cover and pensions is critical to preventing oil and gas professionals being lured away to other sectors such as renewables or construction.
More than 2,000 industry professionals took part in the survey, including workers employed on a permanent basis, contractors and those out of work but actively looking for roles in the industry, across a range of disciplines and global oil hubs.
Despite the prolonged downturn on oil prices, industry sentiment remains buoyant, with the majority of respondents of the opinion that oil and gas is a cyclical industry, and almost forty percent predicting a recovery in the next two years. In fact, the downturn seems to have had some beneficial side-effects, with almost half of respondents seeing improved decision-making, followed by greater innovation and increased productivity.
SPE OFFSHORE EUROPE 2017 CONFRONTS THE CYBER THREAT TO THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR
The scale and severity of attacks on industrial cyber systems is growing and has the potential to put oil and gas infrastructure, critical processes and workers’ lives in danger. SPE Offshore Europe 2017 will host a keynote panel session on cyber and physical attacks on the industry to help delegates understand the risks, manage detection of threats and defend against malicious actions.
BBC security correspondent, journalist and author, Frank Gardner OBE, who survived being shot six times by Al-Qaeda terrorists in a Riyadh suburb in Saudi Arabia, will be part of the expert panel.
The session will be chaired by Deirdre Michie, Chief Executive of Oil & Gas UK and will involve Professor David Stupples, Director of Electronic Warfare Systems Research, University of London, who will reveal research into the cyber threat specific to the oil and gas industry. In particular, he will talk about cyber attacks on SCAdA – supervisory control and data acquisition. Other keynote speakers include Dominic Armstrong, President of Herminius, a risk management and intelligence consultancy.
Under the theme Embracing New Realities: Reinventing our Industry, SPE Offshore Europe 2017 will offer more than 65 free-to-attend technical presentations and 11 keynote panel sessions combined with business breakfasts and topical lunches. A ‘new for 2017’ Decommissioning Zone will feature a themed exhibition and conference space showcasing decommissioning technology and service providers and a conference programme organised in association with Decom North Sea, IMechE, ITF and SUT.
Visit:
www.offshore-europe.co.uk for further information.
Left: Frank Gardner, the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Journalist and Author, will join the ‘Cyber and Physical Security’ panel session at SPE Offshore Europe 2017.
p16 |
www.sosmagazine.biz | July 2017
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