The oil industry needs some new blood. But is any mere human being up to the task?

Wanted: Highly skilled geoscientist with broad understanding of geology, geophysics, petrophysics and reservoir engineering. Mortals need
not apply.
Anymore an annual meeting or major conference would be remiss without at least one session devoted to the people shortage in the oil patch. Of course, that's a fairly recent phenomena - I don't remember hearing as many of these speeches a couple of years ago, when the majors were laying off huge chunks of their exploration staffs. But with prices on a continued high and quality people in short supply, the mantra has begun: The average age of the workforce is mid- to late 40s. We need to attract qualified graduates.
There are the usual obvious reasons no one in his or her right mind would pursue a career in the energy industry. First and foremost is the industry's own woeful inability to weather the commodity price swings without punishing its workforce. While it might make sense to try cutting other costs before cutting intellectual capital, Wall Street seems to reward the quick fix, and the quarter-to-quarter thinking that results doesn't add up to much job security in the lean times.
Second is the industry's dismal image among environmentally conscious youth, and it's hard to find someone younger than 30 who doesn't think greener is better. Kids who see the world in black and white terms won't appreciate the concept of a smaller drilling footprint on the Arctic tundra or the billions spent researching and developing cleaner-burning gasolines; they respond to images of waterfowl coated with crude and think of the industry as a dirty, unsafe place to work.
But graduates who do venture into this industry may be surprised at what challenges await them. Those of you who've weathered the layoffs probably don't need to be told you're working harder now than you were 10 years ago. While we definitely have a leaner, meaner oil and gas industry, only some of that can be attributed to smarter workflows and greater automation. Some of the "efficiency gains" boil down to old-fashioned elbow grease, a team of six shouldering the same workload that used to be managed by 12. New recruits will be expected to roll up their sleeves, jump into the fray and learn the ropes very, very quickly.
Their jobs also will be increasingly reliant on very complex technology. While new, exciting technology can be an enticement to graduates who might otherwise migrate to the computer industry, the professional demands of staying current on the technology, thoroughly understanding its uses and being able to apply it in such a way as to glean some competitive advantage might seem a little overwhelming to a 22-year-old. Yet this is what industry pundits are hoping for with the next wave of recruits.
At the recent annual meeting of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, J.L. Vermeulen, president of exploration and production at TotalFinaElf, discussed "People and Technology in Geoscience: the Essential Win-Win Alliance" during the conference's opening session. He outlined several technologies that are still creeping along the S-curve in terms of their development and adoption: time-lapse and multicomponent seismic, reservoir modeling and visualization, "designer" wells, high-resolution seismic processing, rock analysis and geological modeling, and reservoir simulation. With a thin layer of older professionals to guide them, the new breed will quickly need to champion these new and emerging technologies. Vermeulen also said the industry will need professionals with intuition and risk understanding, and they'll need to be specialists yet able to transcend discipline barriers. Their use of technology will need to contribute to the capital efficiency of a project while respecting environmental constraints, and they'll need to be dedicated to value creation and committed to sustainable development.
A.A. Wood, head of global exploration for Shell International Exploration and Production, added that increasingly complex reservoirs will require geoscientists who can use all of the tools in the toolbox yet understand the underlying science and rationale behind their use. "We need to guard against creating Nintendo explorationists who have lost touch with the real rocks," he said.
Rather, he said, the industry needs people who have a fundamental understanding of petroleum exploration and who also are smart in business.
Whew! That's a tall order, for the graduates and the industry, which needs to find these wise-beyond-their-years, exceptionally trained individuals (by the droves, I might add) and recruit them. Then it needs to keep them happy. Wood said Shell has set up "exploration clusters" in several of its offices to provide a working and living environment that its employees enjoy. The company also makes a point of ensuring that explorationists' careers are not tied to a single asset. Still, "Keeping them happy is not a trivial task," Wood said.
But I think the synergy of technology and people might pay off in a way the Nintendo generation understands better than we do. Using the best subsurface measurements available and rendering them in ways that make spatial as well as scientific sense may bring a sense of fun back to the industry. Geoscientists already know the drudgery of sifting through data has been minimized by new computer technology. Improved software applications allow them to interact with their data in almost real time, and new developments constantly push the envelope in terms of what can be accomplished with computers. Young people raised with these amazing machines will have little trouble keeping up with the changes.
Meanwhile, maybe the older generation can let the younger generation in on its own little secret. After all, at the end of the day, few professions are as exciting and rewarding as one that challenges its participants to find something buried deep beneath the earth's surface. How hard can it be to sell that detective story to young, intrepid professionals?
Said Wood, "We need to convey the reality that we're being paid to do what we want to do anyway."
How can we do that? Perhaps that's fodder for another column. Meanwhile I'd like to hear what efforts are under way and whether they seem to be making a difference.

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