Petra Nelson and Michael MacAnearney of Gerard Daniels will highlight the fact that the rate of exploration and production activity across the global upstream oil and gas industry has reached almost unprecedented levels of activity as organisations strive to take advantage of high commodity prices.
They will discuss how in Australia alone, the value of committed and feasibility study projects in the resources sector has reached more than $A32 billion, making it impossible for the country’s population to quickly deliver the required skills to deliver the projects in a timely fashion.
This skills shortage has been cited as the single greatest risk factor to the delivery of these projects and to Australia’s ability to capture the full economic value of this investment.
Nelson and MacAnearney will also ask whether a global shortage really exists or if the fault really lies with competing organisations whose focus on traditional labour markets to meet staff needs is driving up the price of the labour and forcing inevitable salary hikes.
They will also pose other tough questions.
“What real work has been done in understanding strategies that make a fundamental difference to the ability of organisations and regions to attract scarce labour without always resorting to increasing salaries?” Nelson says.
“In addition, what has been done to challenge the oil and gas industry’s dearly held beliefs about what constitutes an ‘acceptable’ candidate?”
Nelson and MacAnearney are among a strong line-up of local and international plenary session speakers at this year’s conference. International Energy Agency executive director Claude Mandil opens the conference on May 8 with his keynote address, Global Oil and Gas Market Outlook: Challenges and Opportunities.
Registrations for this year’s APPEA Conference have this week passed the 1000 mark, with oil and gas industry people attending from all Australian states and territories and from 17 other countries. Delegates from the United Kingdom currently lead the international registrations.
The conference’s exhibition component has been sold out for several weeks with all 136 booths booked.
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