SPE President’s Summit on Talent and Technology Achieves Breakthroughs

John Donnelly, JPT Editor

Seventy-five executives and senior leaders in the oil and gas industry met in London in late June to explore two of the most critical issues facing the industry today—the shortage of technical talent and climate change. The SPE President’s Summit on Talent and Technology was the idea of 2007 SPE President Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa, who proposed the meeting to advance cross-sector collaboration on these issues.

Participating were key figures from operating companies, the service sector, and academia. After a daylong, wide-ranging discussion, participants agreed to pursue collaborative efforts to help the industry confront these challenges. Attendees recommended the creation of an SPE Industry Talent Council to address the quality and quantity of petroleum engineering and technical graduates. The council would set up a pilot project designed to improve undergraduate programs in a non-OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country. If the pilot is successful, additional programs would be set up in other non-OECD countries. The Talent Council also proposes to

Collect industry staffing data once a year to build an accurate database of the industry’s talent needs. Schlumberger Business Consulting conducted a benchmark study on hiring that was used at the summit.
Examine global certification issues.
Focus on prehiring rather than post-hiring issues because this offers more room for collaboration.
Consider whether this council could be a pilot for how the industry could collaborate on other issues.

Summit attendees also recommended the formation of an industry committee to address issues related to carbon sequestration, and concluded that SPE could play a key role in advancing the related technologies and also has the credibility to be a leader in this effort. Members of the summit’s program committee are continuing to work on the proposals and are developing action plans for the initiatives that were identified. The SPE Board of Directors is scheduled to discuss the role of the talent council and carbon committee at its next meeting.

Executive Support

Several key industry executives participated on the summit program committee and championed the event, including Malcolm Brinded, Executive Director E&P, Shell; Chad Deaton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Baker Hughes; Bernard Duroc-Danner, Chairman and CEO, Weatherford; Ellis Armstrong, Group Vice President for Exploration & Production, BP; Tore Torvund, Executive Vice President, Hydro; and Patrick Pouyanne, Senior Vice President for Strategy, Business Development, and R&D, Exploration & Production, Total.

At the end of the summit, the executives were positive about the progress that had been made. “It is always very difficult to have synthesis with such a large body of people,” Duroc-Danner said. “But we managed to produce a sense of urgency, and a sense of priority. At meetings like this, you often just have a polite adjournment, but I felt that we are leaving with a meaningful sense of what needs to be done. If I were to give this meeting a grade, it would be a rather high one.”

Deaton also praised the group for making progress. “It was a great day in the sense that we took one very positive step especially in the talent collaboration area,” he said. “Considering how broad these topics were, I am especially pleased with the idea of the talent council. It has given us an area where we can collaborate.”

Summit White Paper

The summit was built around a white paper that had been prepared in advance, titled “A Changing Dynamic: The Need for Collaboration Around Talent Development and Climate Change in the Exploration and Production Industry.” The paper laid out the challenges the industry faces in finding adequate technical talent and concerning climate change, as well as offering possible ways forward. In his remarks opening the summit, Al-Khalifa said that it is critical that the industry do a better job of attracting and retaining talent, and on the issue of climate change, it needs to be viewed by the public as part of the solution instead of part of the problem. “We, as an industry, have to act on these issues,” he said.

Discussion among the participants during the summit was off the record to encourage dialogue. One of the premises in the white paper that acted as a backdrop to the discussion is that the world will continue to rely on fossil fuels for energy supplies well into the future despite the growing interest in renewables and alternative energy. But the use of fossil fuels has sustainability challenges, and the public holds the industry increasingly responsible for climate change. Technology may be the solution, particularly if the E&P industry is to produce more hydrocarbons, improve oil recovery factors, find environmental solutions surrounding fossil fuel use, and discover new energy sources.

However, this technology development will not be possible without the needed talent to create it, develop it, and use it. Working against the industry is the pending retirement of scores of employees in the oil and gas industry and the age gap that resulted from the industry downturn in the 1980s. The industry is also struggling to attract new entrants to the field, particularly younger people who believe they have more-attractive career options available to them.

With the growing media and public concern for climate change, attendees agreed that the industry must be seen to be on the “right side” of this issue. It will be positive for the industry’s image, help attract more young people to the industry, and in the end, may even be good business. Conversely, if the industry is seen to be on the “wrong side” of the climate-change/greenhouse-gas-emissions issue, it could worsen the public’s perception of it even further and dissuade even more young people from seeking oil and gas careers. A key opportunity for the industry may rest in developing carbon-storage and -sequestration solutions.

Key Challenges

In summary, attendees agreed that the main challenges for the industry are to find enough energy for the world’s needs, produce it in an environmentally responsible manner, and attract and retain the employees capable of doing that. The group identified several key underlying challenges that must be handled adeptly to ensure the industry’s future success. In short, the oil and gas industry must

Improve its public image.
Find ways to mitigate or soften price cycles.
Realize that its center of gravity is shifting from OECD countries to non-OECD ones.
Ensure that the talent supply chain is globally connected.
Find breakthroughs in enhanced oil recovery.
Speed up technology adoption.

Many participants said they see SPE as instrumental in developing these options because it has the credibility to promote industry collaboration and has a wide geographic presence. Participants expressed strong support for SPE’s decision to form an Industry Advisory Council, which the SPE Board approved at its 24 June meeting. The council will comprise 15 to 20 industry executives who will meet twice a year. Establishment of this council will ensure management engagement in and support of the society and at the same time will help SPE align its activities with industry needs.

Brinded commended SPE for taking on these issues, which he said are crucial to the future of the industry. Armstrong agreed. “I think we have taken a big step forward in two critical problems facing the world and our industry—security of supply and carbon capture, and the human talent and technology that we need to do both,” he said.

An extensive excerpt from the conference white paper can be found in Talent & Technology, which is packaged with this month’s JPT.