Priceless opportunity

As oil prices threaten to top $150 a barrel the demand for resources increases and so, too, does demand for engineering staff within the oil and gas sector.

A study by management consultancy

commissioned by industry body

has revealed that in the subsea oil and gas sector alone, which accounts for about 29 per cent of UK production, revenues grew from £3.35bn in 2006 to £4.3bn in 2007.

'The consistently high oil price over the last four to five years means companies are now looking at projects that were not viable before,' said Joe Rothwell, operations manager at engineering staffing specialist

.

The company is looking for petroleum and reservoir and downstream feed engineers for its busy subsea operation, and construction and project management engineers for international roles. 'As smaller companies are considering the more marginal fields, the exploration and production industry is also booming. In the downstream industry a lot of design work for overseas installations is happening in the UK,' said Rothwell.