The oil and gas industry has remained buys with activity out the gate. With a bright outlook for the year, the job market continues to have various jobs available. Opportunity is available if a career hunter carries a college degree or comes from the school of hard knocks. The challenge comes in identifying the best role suited for one’s particular skillset and then analyzing what the industry offers.
According to Christopher Melillo. The founder and managing partner of Kaye/Bassman Energy Practice, most career positions in domestic oil and gas for the year will be engineering and specialty roles, but not all will require degreed professionals.
“For the non-degreed side, we see engine operators, operations support, drivers, etc.,” said Melillo. “We have several superintendent roles for piping for midstream and refinery construction.”
Engineering roles typically command the majority when considering degree-requiring positions, but quality control and supply-oriented roles have seen a bolstering in degree requirements.
“The professional degreed positions we are often seeing does, in some cases, require degreed professionals for supply or QA auditors, QA supervisors, and chem specialists for injection related activities,” said Melillo.
While the variety of jobs available are diverse in requirements, specific areas are the hotspots of opportunity. Many in the financial world, like Barclays and Evercore ISI, predict that North American shale will remain “flat” in spending, and the drilling arena will feel that effect. Instead, opportunities within a specialty or niche should be the placeholders for career opportunities.
Investment activity in improving infrastructure and boosting production will be a primary focus. Piping projects alone are monopolizing the need for mechanical technicians and mechanical engineers.
Once again, piping dominates for refinery and midstream PMs as there are several projects still mid-process for large capital builds,” said Melillo.
Looking past North American Shale, the international and offshore markets are expected to increase capex spending significantly. With more money exchanging hands, career opportunities will flourish in parallel. Melillo expects offshore exploration and production will command a need for professional and geoscience positions.
“Ghana being one of the fastest growing regions for these roles with a heavy demand for Transmission/Piping design and implementation roles,” said Melillo.
Although some areas of interest can be identified, certainty is not a commodity that can be bought. While the market has been subjected to outside influence in addition to cyclical fluctuations, many refrain from making predictions.
“After working in operating oil and gas companies and then professionally recruiting technical and financial talent in the industry for over twenty years, the only thing we can predict with certainty is that there is constant change in oil and gas where companies and people that can adapt to the change will be successful,” said Dave Mount and Henry Shurlds of OneSource Professional in a joint statement. “What we think will occupy and or dominate oil and gas recruitment in 2024 is the market rebalancing with companies and people/jobs adapting to more company consolidations and efforts to gain efficiencies; scale up acreage for best drillable locations via mergers/acquisitions.”
Mount and Shurlds reasoned that traditional oil and gas job growth typically surpasses alternate energy forms like wind. As the industry progresses, the next wave of oil and gas experts must be prepared to replace a retiring workforce. While new plays and technologies might be limited in growth this year, personnel movement will still occur with the workforce change.
“Those positioned with good resources that can provide them with an ear on the market will likely do best in terms of niche openings/opportunities that will be available as the market reconfigures itself and adapts to efficiencies and optimization of assets,” said Mount and Shurlds.
Nick Vaccaro is a freelance writer and photographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with twelve years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, American Oil and Gas Investor, Oil and Gas Investor, Energies Magazine and Louisiana Sportsman Magazine. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or nav@vaccarogroupllc.com.
