Career opportunities in North sea oil and gas

The climate in the global oil sector is decidedly unsettled; warnings of profit-lows are blowing in, there is high pressure in the share market, and the spectre of prices going down a polar vortex looms larger every day.

But, on the other hand, this could be just a case of heavy weather, severe man-flu in what is after all a multi-billion dollar industry, with plenty of cash to spare. Indeed, one of the key reasons for the profit warnings has been the high rate of investment in new infrastructure and technology last year, aimed of course at the longer term.

In the North Sea, as The Engineer detailed (November 2013), interest is booming. This was unsurprising, said Michael Fallon, the energy minister, in January when the government announced a new set of exploration licences, “as there could be as many as 20 billion barrels of oil still buried deep within the seabed”.

All of which is good news for engineers, according to Morven Spalding, skills development director of OPITO, the skills organisation for the UK oil and  gas industry. But at the same time is a huge challenge for employers who will be competing for their expertise.