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The Forum > Article Comments > Oil industry faces huge worker shortage > Comments

Oil industry faces huge worker shortage : Comments

By Nicholas Cunningham, published 14/7/2016

US shale oil production could be the swing producer, but the swing will be limited if it can't hire enough staff.

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If there seems to be an emerging labor supply shortage, then somebody with your nouse could start an oil industry specific labor hire and training company as a profitable venture?

I mean the norwegians have many idle rigs mothballed and dozen of english speaking nationals swelling the dole queues or other occupations? The real problem is the alpha (bully boy) males who seem attracted to this industry and do their best to drive everyone else out of it?

And that's remediated by good PR management skills! And enough semi-permanent work to keep the experienced operators continuously available.

Moreover, real leaders and foremen material lead the way by example as the hardest working, most patient blokes on site and show rather than tell!

Moreover, if the industry aren't prepared to man up and train replacement staff? Where in heaven's name do they expect to get them from? As manna from heaven!?

To conclude, I think this is another of those scare campaigns put about by activists to maximise the profits of the middleman profit takers!? And therefore needs to be taken with a "huge" grain of salt!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Thursday, 14 July 2016 10:47:32 AM
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I am electrician, and I once tossed in a bad permanent job because the Sydney newspapers were shrieking about a shortage of electricians. I thought I could now pick and choose. When I became unemployed, I found out that it was all crap. There were no jobs anywhere.

Same too when the "mining boom" was on in Australia. The newspapers shreiked about how there were not enough construction electricians to do the work. As a very experienced electrician who had worked on several mines previously, I thought I would be a shoo in. Then reality set in again. My union (ETU) claimed that there not enough electricians, and my own union set up two recruitment offices in the USA to advise US electricians about getting work in Australia. But when I rang the ETU in Sydney about where these jobs were that needed electricians, the union could not tell me they were.

The mining companies obviously wanted US electricians only and my union helped them.

If you want an interstate mining job, you need a licence for whatever state you wish to work in before you are even allowed to apply for the job. That costs $500 bucks. In addition, you often need a swag of other licences, ( Confined Space, 11 meter boom, First Aid, and High Risk Work) plus whatever else the customer requires. Some of these "tickets" only last 1 or 2 years, which means that the worker must do endless "refresher" courses to keep the ticket.

I personally doubt that there is any shortage of workers on mine sites or oil fields. But if there are, it is hardly surprising, with the endless red tape, lack of information, and the general arrogance of the recruiters who seem to regard candidates as people who will do anything to get a job.

If you are already in the system and they know you, you won't have any trouble getting a job. If you have been out of the game for a while, they will make you jump through hoops and bugger you around until the cows come home.
Posted by LEGO, Friday, 15 July 2016 4:46:42 AM
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I"d have thought fossil fuel industries were gradually on their way out these days with alternative energy generating technologies growing all the time. In any case, Robotics and AI will very soon put an end to human labor requirements in these types of jobs. Don't laugh...A quantitative leap in advanced computer technology is only just around the corner. > https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/have-we-hit-a-major-artificial-intelligence-milestone/
Posted by Rojama, Friday, 15 July 2016 1:56:23 PM
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The writer of these columns has found an avenue for free publicity for his business ("Oil and Energy News", not including energy other than fossil fuels and uranium)).

Here are, in a few brief words, the problems with oil shale:

Water use and pollution, energy intensity of production, toxic pollutants, land and ecosystem destruction, further greenhouse gas release.

A quick Google will find you details on these topics. Here is a starting place:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5167

If this fellow had any vision, he'd be widening his ambit into renewable energy, where the outcomes are sustainable and timely. Shale oil is just another desperate scrabble at the bottom of the fossil fuel energy barrel.

But I doubt interested in sustainable energy. For a primer, he might go to the website of the Rocky Mountain Institute. It's plain to me, reading their growth statistics citations, that renewable electricity supplies are where the jobs are to be found.

http://blog.rmi.org/blog_hot_air_about_cheap_natural_gas
Posted by Sir Vivor, Monday, 18 July 2016 9:16:24 AM
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