The oil and gas industry will need nearly 30,000 new petroleum engineers by 2009 to replace engineers eligible to retire by that time and to meet engineering needs for growing energy demand. In 2004, only about 1,500 students were enrolled in US petroleum engineering courses.

That's just one of the disturbing facts unearthed in an American Petroleum Institute Workforce Challenges Survey Results from 22 majors, independents and service companies. Those companies employ 254,683 people, or about 17% of the total US industry work force. Those 22 companies will need up to 5,044 new engineers by 2009. If that is a representative number, the whole industry would need 29,671 new engineers.

Petroleum engineering topped the list of projected scarce skills with 77% of the companies listing that profession as a major concern, the survey said.

The survey said the average age of an engineer in the work force is 41, and 21% of those working now will be eligible for retirement by 2009. The average age of the total industry work force is 51, according to Mark Rubin, executive director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, in a US News and World Report article.

The situation is similar in other key categories. Seventy-three percent of the companies in the survey listed geology, geophysics and engineering analysts or technicians as key areas of employment concern.

The average age of geoscientists, at 45, makes those professions older than petroleum engineers, and a full fourth of that work force may need replacement by 2009. But the industry supports fewer geoscientists than engineers, and only 1,336 might be required to fill industry needs by 2009.

Run down the list of oilfield jobs, and the situation looks the same. Instrumentation and electrical trades; maintenance crafts; and health, safety and environment professionals average 46 years old. Joining geoscientists at 45 are skilled process and production operators and engineering analysts or technicians.

The only category in the survey with an average age less than 40 was operations support at 39.

The 22 industry companies listed their top work force issues on a scale of one to five, with five representing the highest concern. Top issues were age demographics with a 4.5 score, recruiting challenges with a 4.1 mark, skill-pool management with a 3.9 ranking, attraction and awareness of youth to the energy industry in fourth place with 3.6 tied with the image of the energy industry.

Several of those points are particularly important. Recruiting challenges go hand-in-hand with the attractiveness of the industry to youth and the image of the industry.

According to API, the industry has been in contraction for more than 2 decades. It hasn't sought out new recruits and it has "removed the incentives required to develop the required pool of new talent, and (those actions) resulted in a severe atrophy of the pool."

In addition, there is "a growing perception that the petroleum industry is an unattractive industry in which to pursue a professional career, in part because of its past contraction as well as its recent price volatility," the API report said.

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