Subsea:
The UK subsea industry is one of the most exciting and fastest growing technology sectors in the world. It’s a career that can take you to all four corners of the globe – working in locations as diverse as the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico or the Indian Ocean.
With some 42,000 employees, over £4 billion worth of services and products and over 800 companies, the UK subsea industry sector currently leads the world in experience, innovation and technology.
Subsea itself is a general term frequently used to refer to equipment, technology and activities employed either directly on the seabed orin the water between thesurface of the sea and the seabed. It is applied mostly for the extraction of oil and gas reserves that exist below the ocean floor.
Cutting-edge technology combined with world-leading engineering is ensuring that the UK is at the forefront of extracting one of the most precious commodities from under the seabed in a safe and environmentally secure manner.
The oil and gas industry has received many mixed reports of late such as that the oil is running out, the skills crisis is not as acute and has been over-played in the media and that jobs in the UK and elsewhere are disappearing. These are simply not true.
In a practical and simplified term, yes, it is probable that we are nearing or have passed Peak Oil production, but Peak Oil does not mean we are running out of oil. It means that globally we will have tapped into around 50% of the world’s reserve and this merely means that the time of ‘easy oil’ is over and now we have to go deeper and into ever more hostile environments such as under the polar ice to obtain our black gold.
These are exciting times for the subsea sector. The future of the offshore oil and gas industry undoubtedly lies with subsea systems as these are ideal for developing new oil and gas reserves in deepwater as well as maximising the recovery of oil and gas from old, so called mature fields in places like the North Sea where it is simply no longer economic to build or maintain the large offshore platforms built in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Current technology is capable of extracting about 40% of the oil from most wells. We cannot keep relying on technologies developed 20 years ago and with an increasing level of investment in the industry today, we are seeing increasing levels of innovation and new technologies coming forward for the future. We must keep pushing the technological boundaries and find new ways of working to make even the most challenging deepwater and hostile environment projects a viable reality.
Skills Shortage:
Bearing in mind our rapid growth, any sector growing annually by 30% will have skills and ageism issues and that is why the UK subsea industry is facing a skills crisis.
To give an insight into one particular area that highlights our industry’s shortage we can look at last years statistics from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA): In the December and January issues of Pathfinder a snapshot of the enormous growth of the industry was noted by the number of new vessels, drilling rigs, saturation diving spreads and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) due to join the industry. Through this snapshot it was estimated that, in the next 2-3 years, we would require some 5,000 personnel to operate these new orders.
With the offshore fleet alone becoming physically larger and the industry already finding it difficult to recruit and train skilled people, this poses a serious challenge for the industry.
As the subsea industry continues to be buoyant we need the right people with the right skills to make sure it stays that way in the future.
In January 2006, Subsea UK conducted a survey of its 150 company members to address the skills shortage. The survey indicated that the global subsea sector would need about 2,000- 3,000 engineers in the next few years and even more in the future.
In September 2007 Subsea UK conducted another survey on its member companies and of the 156 organisations 80% specified that they were still looking to recruit.
Service Leavers Welcomed:
Subsea UK has recently teamed up with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) in a bid to promote the industry and the skills shortages it faces to those leaving the armed forces.
Many of the skills required and valued by employers are taught and practised by a number of people in the Services.
With over 15,000 Service leavers looking for employment, Romana Grant, Regional Employment and Training Manager for CTP in Scotland, said there was a potential for thousands of jobs in the subsea sector.
The CTP believes we are one of the few industries offering a range of opportunities in Scotland and beyond which also meet the needs and expectations of Service leavers, who can offer a wide range of transferable skills and experiences to prospective employers.
The CTP already works with a number of subsea companies and has placed many Service leavers in a range of roles within this sector.
First Step:
Subsea UK has created a dedicated website for those looking for a potential subsea career: www.subseaskills.co.uk was developed to attract potential engineers in a bid to tackle the skills shortage.
The site was officially launched late 2007 to attract and train potential new subsea engineers by reflecting the needs of the industry and allowing prospective engineers to gain more convenient access to all the information necessary to apply for the right job.
The easy-to-use search options allow potential employees to see how wide ranging a subsea career can be but also allows direct access to the vast companies within the sector and their vacancy portals.
A number of Subsea UK member companies are listed on this site and each provides a short synopsis of the type of skills they employ, where they are based, how many staff they currently employ and each company’s logo links you directly to the vacancy section of their website.
Look out for next months issue which will include case studies from those who have made the transition from the Forces to the subsea sector and hear from the companies who have benefited greatly from their skills.
Subsea UK
W: www.subseauk.com – main website
W: www.subseaskills.co.uk – website dedicated to tackling the skills shortage
E-mail: admin@subseauk.com
End notes:
Subsea UK champions Britain’s subsea sector, which leads the way around the globe in terms of market size, experience and technology development.
Established as the focal point for all stakeholders to promote the sector and maximise its opportunities globally, Subsea UK now has over 150 member companies representing the whole subsea supply chain from operators to major contractors and manufacturers to small technology innovators.
Subsea UK provides a national forum for collaboration, diversification, commercialisation of technology and coordinated marketing in the UK and abroad.
Key priorities for Subsea UK are:
- Ensuring that the UK maintains its world leading position in subsea oil and gas.
- Creating a Centre of Subsea Excellence in the UK.
- Implementing programmes that address the key skills shortages in the industry.
- Bringing industry, academia and government together to accelerate the development of the next wave of subsea technologies.
- Helping member companies diversify into other sector and other geographical markets.