Nature of work in oil and gas industry shifting

Automation.  Artificial intelligence. Cloud computing. Big data. Robotics. Machine learning.  These and other current technology trends are beginning to impact workers in the oil and gas industry. Many types of workers will need to better to understand and achieve competence in the new technical work environment during the next 10 years. But ironically, survival of the fittest will also be dependent on soft skills like oral communication, team building, and problem solving in the evolving work environment.

The Future of Jobs Report, published the World Economic Forum, presents employment information and data that were compiled by the Switzerland-based non-profit organization. Among the report’s findings are recommendations for reforming education, training systems, and job skills across many industries, including the oil and gas industry.

By better understanding of the potential of new technologies, companies can create new high-quality jobs and vastly improve the productivity of the existing work of human employees. In some cases, technological advances will augment existing jobs rather than replace or displace existing jobs.  In other cases, technology is expected to create wholly new categories of jobs in the oil and gas industry.

As technological breakthroughs change the nature of work, companies in the oil and gas industry will need to support their existing workforces through “reskilling” and “upskilling.”

“Talent management and workforce analytics are increasingly integral elements of companies’ future-readiness plans,” according to the report. “Yet relatively few organizations have so far formulated comprehensive workforce strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The report was conducted in 2018. Employees represented by companies in the oil and gas industry totaled more than 750,000. They included oil and gas field services as well as equipment.

Good news for oil and gas

Trends set to positively impact business growth in the oil and gas industry include increasing adoption of new technologies and the availability of big data. According to the report, advances in mobile internet and artificial intelligence will also positively impact this industry as companies leverage the new and emerging technologies to reach higher levels of efficiency of production.

Even as technological advancements change existing business models and practices during the next decade, they will also become the primary drivers of opportunities for new growth. Global employers surveyed indicate that high-speed mobile internet, artificial intelligence, widespread adoption of big data analytics, and cloud technology are set to dominate the period from 2019 to 2022 as drivers positively affecting business growth.

“By 2022, according to the stated investment intentions of companies surveyed for this report, 85% of respondents are likely or very likely to have expanded their adoption of user and entity big data analytics,” according to survey results. “Similarly, large proportions of companies are likely or very likely to have expanded their adoption of technologies such as the Internet of Things.”

The percentages of oil and gas companies likely to adopt new and emerging technologies by 2022 include the following:

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