The oil and gas industry is currently facing many challenges and opportunities. The industry provides roughly 60% of the power used by the world's 6.9 billion inhabitants. It's estimated that we'll need twice as much oil and gas in the future than we're producing today. One reason this will be a challenge is because it's expected that nearly half of professionals working in the oil and gas field today will retire over the next 10 years.
When this happens it will leave a high amount of open and available jobs with only a few trained people to perform them. Other long-term challenges include managing assets that might be declining, improving return on capital, and finding ways to replace and grow the current reserves.
The oil and gas industry desperately needs new, highly- skilled individuals to train and join this quickly growing industry. The oil and gas industry employs individuals who work in office buildings, such as administration, management and IT professionals. In addition, there are more hands-on jobs such as workers who are out in the field like platform and roughneck workers, offshore oil employees, as well as people who work on pipelines and in refineries. And with the right people and solutions, the oil and gas industry will be able to meet the energy challenges of this and the next century, but it will require new workers to enter the industry soon. On the following pages you will get a glimpse of the industry and some common positions. Highlights include:
- Oil Industry Career Paths
- Working on an Oil Platform
- The Job of an Oil Rig Roughneck
- Offshore Oil and Gas Jobs
- Natural Gas Jobs
- Working on Oil and Gas Pipelines
- Jobs at Refineries, and
- How to Find Oil Industry Vacancies
Oil Industry Structure Explained
There are some industry terms that will prove to be helpful as we learn more about this exciting and growing industry. The first thing that you should know if that It’s broken down into three sectors. Upstream is a term used to describe the exploration and production sector of the industry and involves oil rigs, drilling and manufacturing equipment. The downstream is the processing and product sector and includes both wholesalers and retailers such as gas stations. There is also a sector in the industry known as midstream, which is responsible for the transportation and storage of crude oil via pipelines and tankers.
It's literally the middle sector between up and down stream processes as it moves the product from the upstream to the downstream process.
Fully integrated companies are those that work in both upstream and downstream sectors and are often described as multinational companies because they operate on a global scale. Some companies focus on just one of the sectors. For instance, those that just concentrate on the upstream process are known as E&P (exploration and production) companies, while midstream and downstream focused companies are known as R&Ms which stands for refining and marketing.
Did You Know? Oil exploration first began by geologists in 1912 in the Cushing Field in Oklahoma. The basics of oil exploration have remained the same, but new technology and advances have made it safer and more productive.
Different Industry Perspectives
From a corporate and business standpoint, the oil and gas industry is a massive industry that expands almost daily.
Not only does the industry produce oil and gas, but it also creates millions of jobs for hard working Americans and provides billions of dollars worth of national revenue. Oil and gas is vital to the economic growth and stability of our country, and so is maintaining a steady supply of it. Although many people may not realize it, new hotspots pop up all the time.
When people think of oil production in the US, they think of states like Texas, Alaska and California. But North Dakota is an up and coming state. It’s one of the newest U.S. hotspots and broke the $100 million mark in revenues not too long ago. This has had a positive effect on the state in many ways. For instance, while the national unemployment rate has been between eight and ten percent, North Dakota has had a rate of less than four percent, which is the lowest in the country.
In addition, shale oil is an up and coming segment of the industry because of recent technology that has opened the way to successfully drill for it. It's estimated that the U.S. has twice the amount of shale oil than has been consumed by the entire world since oil was first discovered in 1859. States laden with these reserves are Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
As a country that produces oil and gas, the U.S. is continually trying to answer questions such as what the best way is to develop resources while achieving long-term sustainable benefits. As one the highest consuming nations in the world, we must also address issues such as how we can reduce our dependence on imported oil. Both of these questions have short and long term effects on our nation, economy and way of life. The oil and gas industry has many faces, but one thing is clear: it impacts almost every facet of our everyday lives and we must not take it for granted.
Did You Know? The U.S. Government estimates that there are about 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 50 billion plus barrels of oil yet to be discovered on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)that surrounds the lower 48 states.
Now that you have a better idea of the current state of the oil and gas industry and where it’s heading, you might be curious about the different career opportunities that are available. We’ll discuss them next.
Oil & Gas Industry Overview Summary
- The US has gas and oil just waiting to be discovered and processed, and this could create thousands of jobs.
- The global need for oil and gas is expected to double over the next decade and has put pressure on oil companies to find new reserves.
- Fully integrated companies work both the upstream and downstream sectors of the industry.
- There is a wide range of jobs available within the industry, both in the corporate environment and out in the adventure field.
- To gain independence from foreign oil, we must look into our nation's untapped resources.