A bit about the oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry is an exciting, international, vibrant, skilled and varied industry to work for. It works with often cutting edge technology and has an excellent safety and health record; but it also operates in often remote locations, difficult climates and high risk environments.
Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is the big growth area for the oil and gas industry in Australia with as many as 12 LNG projects under consideration representing over $200 billion of investment. LNG has triggered a revolution in the global gas market.
In the past, natural gas was a regional commodity, consumed near where it was produced and transported by pipelines. Today liquefaction technology enables natural gas to be reduced to 1/600th of its original volume and transported by LNG ships across the globe. The most important infrastructure needed for LNG production and transportation is an LNG plant consisting of one or more LNG ‘trains’, each of which is an independent unit for gas liquefaction. These ‘trains’ need to be constructed as well as operated. Chevron, for example, has said that it is “our plan to build a plant that will include three, 5 million-tonne-per-annum LNG trains and a domestic gas phase and establish international shipping facilities.”
Oil and Gas Industry Job Opportunities
The scope of work undertaken in the oil and gas industry is vast. It ranges from work done out at sea or ‘offshore’ because much of the oil and gas is under the seabed, and also increasingly onshore with new LNG project planned for ‘coal seam gas’ - particularly in Queensland and South Australia. It includes:
- exploration and marine surveying
- operation of offshore and onshore drilling rigs
- subsea technology
- production platforms
- pipelines
- processing and production plants/trains
- marine facilities and transport vessels
- design, planning, construction, installation and commissioning activity
What is Upstream and what is Downstream?
When we talk about the LNG projects such as Chevron’s Gorgon, Woodside’s Pluto, and Inpex Browse Ichthys Gas Field Development we are talking about ‘upstream’ oil and gas - that is finding, extracting, processing and transporting. Downstream includes refining and manufacturing.
What does the Jobseeker need to know to work on LNG Projects?
There are many things that affect the ‘employability’ of a person. It is necessary to understand for example that:
- there are a range of employment opportunities, not just directly in the oil and gas producing and operating phase of projects, but also in the construction phase and the suppliers and contractor services end of oil and gas projects;
- there are large numbers of shorter term construction jobs where workers will move across projects, and there are a far smaller number of longer term production/process jobs directly in oil and gas;
- the jobs cover a wide range of semi skilled, skilled/trade and professional, eg engineering career pathways and these have associated training requirements;
- factors that employers favour/look for in candidates – for example, many jobs require evidence of a mechanical aptitude and reasonable literacy and numeracy;
- yourself – for example, would you really be able to cope with ‘Fly In, Fly Out’ Rosters away from your family and friends, or work in sometimes remote, hot, difficult environments. Consider this too, at this time of year when many are working away from their families and friends.
The range of Jobs and Careers
Designing and constructing LNG projects relies on a huge range of skills and people. Again it is important to understand that many of the jobs will not be with the major oil and gas producers such as Chevron, Woodside, Santos, Exxon Mobil, Inpex, Apache Energy or ConocoPhilips. Many of the jobs associated with the major LNG projects will be with large engineering and construction contractors such as United Group, Worley Parsons, Transfield, Monadelphous, Bechtel, Leightons, Clough and Technip, and with a myriad of smaller suppliers and service contractors covering a wide range of trades and skills.
As a general rule, the oil and gas projects require highly skilled workers, with good levels of numeracy and literacy (so even if you know you do not want to select the university options in your last years at school, you do still need to keep up some maths, science and literacy because you will need them in many of the jobs in oil and gas); and training for the various categories of jobs/careers can often take at least three years. This is why job seekers need to be realistic about the timeframes involved in getting the qualifications and experience required.
Young workers straight out of school and under twenty or so years of age are unlikely to get jobs directly into the oil and gas industry or onto projects, though this is not a cast iron rule and some young school leavers may find a role as a roughneck on a drilling rig or as a construction labourer. There a various reasons why school leavers will generally not find a direct entry into the oil and gas industry, including that the jobs are often skilled, in remote/Fly In Fly Out locations, high risk environments and require some level of experience and maturity. The main advice to young people (for those of you not going into an engineering degree or equivalent degrees required in the oil and gas sector such as geologists, marine surveyors, risk engineers, chemical engineers) would be to get a trade/apprenticeship and get experience in broader industry first.
At the earth moving/construction phase of a project there are jobs that are semi-skilled such as labourers, field assistants, heavy plant operators, concrete mixer helpers.
Refer to The Inside Guide on the website and the chapter, ‘Careers in the Resources and Infrastructure’ Sector. This document provides an excellent overview of the range of jobs available and the sorts of skill levels and training involved from TAFE and other vocational qualifications - to full apprenticeships and traineeships to university degrees.
To Conclude
The oil and gas industry projects will require a large number of all construction trades. There will also be a growing though smaller demand for technical personnel in oil and gas plant process operations and maintenance.
LNG is a relatively new industry to Australia (in large scale terms) and therefore some skills gap exists at a highly technical and senior level. The industry continues to face long-term shortages of petroleum engineering, geoscience and chemical engineering professionals.
Finally, use The Resource Channel to get advice and accurate information on what is going on in the resources sector and to receive direct information from employers as to what jobs are available and what they are looking for.
For many job seekers the key to access to oil and gas is evidence of mechanical aptitude, reasonable numeracy and literacy, a good qualification/trade and some experience – that experience can come from many places, including the agricultural, construction and process industries, together with evidence of initiative in finding out as much as you can about the industry.
We are working with The Resource Channel to develop a comprehensive overview of jobs in the oil and gas sector, which will detail what the position does, what skills, qualifications and experience you need and who typically recruits for these types of roles.