Subsea Industry – the last frontier
These are exciting times for the subsea sector. Majority of oil produced from the North Sea now comes from subsea wells and this is due to increase further in the coming years and yet, as has been widely acknowledged, our industry is facing a skills crisis.
If Britain is to retain its competitive advantage as a world class producer in subsea oil and gas technology then its industry needs to recruit capable and motivated individuals who can develop their skills in what is increasingly a challenging but highly rewarding sector.
With some 42,000 employees, and over 800 companies, the UK subsea industry sector currently leads the world in experience, innovation and technology.
In 2007 the industry in the UK achieved 29% growth based on £4.5bn in revenues, 50% of which was exported all over the world . The potential beyond the UKCS is even greater, with a £25bn global market, which is set to grow even further in the years ahead.
It’s long been thought that the oil and gas industry doesn’t do well to promote itself to those outside the sector but 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 all over the globe – working in locations as diverse as the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico or the Indian Ocean.
Our industry is increasingly moving into deepwater and more hostile and remote locations and we need the right skills to develop game changing technologies to economically develop these new discoveries and increase productivity.
As we push the boundaries into even deeper and harsher water conditions, the continued development of new solutions will play a key role in maintaining the UK as a global leader in the supply of offshore services in a wide range of oil producing provinces.
Imagine working for such a highly successful, expanding global business that's pioneering earth's last frontier and allowing you to regularly explore new experiences each day.
The future of the offshore oil and gas industry undoubtedly lies with subsea systems as, not only are these ideal for developing new, untapped oil and gas reserves in deepwater, but also for 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 1970s and 80s.
In order to fully grasp this opportunity though, we have to become again, as we did in the late 70s and early 80s, a powerhouse, literally for new technology. We have to do more research in order to identify new technologies.
Bearing in mind our exponential 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 recent comments by IMCA, the International Marine Contractors' Association highlighted the fact that the subsea industry will commission at least 50 new offshore construction vessels in the next 2 to 3 years. These together with more than 40 more floating drilling rigs will require some 2000 additional crew members and 800 additional personnel in diving and related positions.
Another area of potential growth for the subsea industry is within the marine renewables sector. It is here that the subsea industry has the skills and experience to really develop the desired outcome of making the UK the world leader in offshore wind, tidal and wave energy, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.
We need to ensure that the UK’s unique, unrivalled global expertise in subsea oil and gas is used to the full to develop marine renewable devices. Today, we have two separate technology groups in the UK – subsea oil and gas and subsea marine renewables – they have to converge to become one and the same.
A subsea well and a tidal stream device need the same technologies for construction, deployment and operation. They each exploit power from the oceans – they just use a different primary driver.
The biggest problem is recruiting staff with specialist, engineering skills, but general skills such as HR and office admin are also a concern. Addressing the skills shortage needs to be a priority for policy makers. .
It is excellent to see the efforts being made to develop these skills such as OPITO’s Subsea Technicians programme and the various recently created undergraduate and postgraduate courses in subsea engineering will all help.
All of the main engineering disciplines are required in the subsea industry:
- Engineers with mechanical and structural skills make big contributions to the development of production equipment, subsea structures, and pipelines.
- Electrical and electronic engineers are involved with control systems.
- Chemical engineers carry-out process analysis of the systems to ensure the fluids will flow satisfactorily.
- And engineers of all disciplines get involved in the management that's required to bring hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment together to complete a single offshore oilfield development.
The UK's subsea companies are active in the full lifecycle of the industry from research and development through to the operation of producing oil and gas fields. That means engineers can experience a range of jobs and can find a role that suits their skills and aspirations.
Many engineers join the subsea industry directly from further education. Others begin in another field of the oil and gas business and transfer to subsea part-way through their careers.
As Champion of the entire British subsea industry we, at Subsea UK, have 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.
Visitors to the site can see how wide ranging a subsea career can be but it also allows potential employees direct access to the vast number of 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.
It is essential for the industry to attract the right calibre of candidates with the technical competence to maintain our market leading position for the future. Exciting opportunities where ideas, vision and innovation are the norm are available now and we believe that in the next few years we will need between 3,000 to 5,000 more people.
David Pridden, CEO Subsea UK