Much has been made over the last decade about the “great crew change” facing the oil and gas industry. The concern is—now more than ever—real, as many that recently entered the industry might now be looking for positions in other industries due to the market downturn.

“The industry is expected to go through a lot of change over the next five to 10 years,” Ron Holsey, digital commercial leader for GE Oil and Gas’ Surface business, told E&P. “Our industry has relied for decades on very smart people with in-depth knowledge and who learned the business from the field up. A lot of that talent is going to be retiring, and to bridge that expertise gap, I think, we will need to rely on innovation and technology. The industry has been traditionally slow to adopt new technology, but I think that will change.

“At GE we are investing in digital solutions and data analytics to connect equipment, data and people to drive operational field efficiency and productivity. We think that’s going to be key to deliver results for our customers.”

Development of hybrid solutions and other forms of new artificial lift technologies are rooted in fieldwork, an important hands-on component of training for any new oil and gas professional.

“They need to spend as much time as they possibly can in the field,” said Mike Berry, an independent petroleum engineer. “They need to visit and ride around with the production foreman and the pumpers. They need to understand what the problems are in the field that aren’t necessarily being reported to the front office. You can’t talk to the field too much, as far as I’m concerned, or spend too much time out there.”

For those working with artificial lift systems for the first time, Bill Lane, vice president emerging technologies for artificial lift systems at Weatherford, believes that success is more a function of how to best use the equipment one has rather than spending considerable amounts of time trying to find the exact best piece of equipment. The differences between equipment are real, but it is more important to correctly and effectively use whatever system you have chosen.

“It’s more about optimization than it is about equipment selection,” he said. “Well conditions change constantly, so wells should likewise be monitored and optimized constantly. An investment in optimization technology usually provides a better return than money spent on the subtle differences between similar lift systems.”

The oil and gas industry will never have a shortage of challenges for the next generation of problem solvers to tackle.

“Continued learning is so important, and our new engineers are put on teams solving our toughest problems,” said Lawrence Burleigh, technical support director, artificial lift systems for Baker Hughes. “New engineers need to seek out challenges and learn. To them, I say ‘welcome to the energy business with its ever-changing challenges.’”

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