A sea change for oil and gas workers
As the global energy transition unfolds, oil and gas workers are discovering their skills and expertise are in high demand for the future.
On March 5, 2024
Carefully examining a survey of the vast seabed under the wild waters of the North Sea, Calum Shand is relishing his new job. After nearly 20 years working on oil and gas projects, he is now in a team designing giant wind turbines to float some 80 kilometres off the north-east coast of Scotland.
Weighing up to 3,000 tonnes and soaring to around 250 metres, each turbine would have to cope with the possibility of being hit by a freak 22-metre wave. But before a final decision is made to go ahead with the project, various hurdles must be overcome, including finding suitable areas of the seabed to lay cables and anchor the floating turbines.
鈥淭he hope with these surveys is to find nothing of archaeological or environmental interest or concern that could impede our footprint,鈥� says Calum. 鈥淏ut in 2022, we found a 100-metre-long shipwreck which we believe was a merchant navy vessel torpedoed during the First World War.鈥�
The often-stormy North Sea offers some of the best wind speeds in the world for wind farm development. Aberdeen, in north-east Scotland and the home of the North Sea oil industry, is also fast becoming a global centre for the development of skills and opportunities for oil and gas workers eyeing new careers designed to support the energy transition.
Similar career switches by oil and gas workers are taking place in other parts of the world. Some 36 million people work in the low-carbon energy sector globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Based on today鈥檚 policies, the IEA predicts that 8 million clean energy jobs will be added worldwide by 2030, with fossil fuel jobs declining by 2.5 million to just below 30 million.
As a senior surveyor for the MarramWind project, a joint venture between Shell and ScottishPower, Calum uses many of the same skills he developed on oil and gas projects.
鈥淭he biggest difference in my new role is the size of the area we鈥檙e surveying,鈥� says Calum. 鈥淔or example, our current wind farm project has an area 56 times bigger than a typical oil and gas rig site survey.鈥�
Calum鈥檚 colleague Denise Neill also joined the project in 2022 after three decades working for Shell on some of the biggest oil and gas developments around the world.
She started to consider changing jobs in 2016 when her daughter asked for her help with a physics project about low-carbon energy. 鈥淚 did a lot of research into renewable power and my fascination took hold,鈥� she says.
Denise鈥檚 personal transition to renewables reflects the second major change to the north-east of Scotland in her lifetime. She grew up on a farm outside Aberdeen, at a time when the development of North Sea oil resources in the 1960s and 1970s was transforming the local economy. Oil and gas swiftly replaced farming and fishing as the main source of revenue in the region.
鈥淚 was about six or seven when the decision was taken to expand Aberdeen Airport to cope with the increase in demand for flights,鈥� says Denise. 鈥淲e had a quarry on our farm and my dad made some extra money by selling some of the rock in the quarry to use in the construction of the airport.
鈥淚 witnessed how Aberdeen swiftly transitioned from farming and fishing to oil and gas, so another transition didn鈥檛 seem like a big leap for me.鈥�
Transforming skills for the future
Around 60% of jobs in the energy transition will require some post-school training, according to the IEA. Shell has an ambition to help 15,000 people across the 麻豆传媒 get jobs with a focus on the energy transition by 2035. This includes funding for training at energy transition skills hubs around the country.
One of these skills hubs is being built on the site of a disused dairy distribution centre in Aberdeen. Applications are expected to open this year with the courses starting in 2025. The centre will teach students how to work with low-carbon technologies such as carbon capture and storage, wind turbines and heat pumps. Other skills hubs are scheduled to open in 2024 鈥� including one in Fife, Scotland and one in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Andy Rodden, programme director for the Aberdeen hub, says that those moving into jobs in the low-carbon energy sector will need the same core skills used in traditional sectors.
鈥淪omeone who is planning to be a welder on a floating wind farm will be taught how to work at height in choppy seas and will be given helicopter training, because that鈥檚 the only way to get out there,鈥� Andy says. 鈥淏ut the core skill of welding bits of metal together doesn鈥檛 actually change 鈥� you鈥檙e just doing it in a different environment.鈥�
In the Netherlands, Fengli Liu is relishing her own personal skills transition. In 2020, the electrical engineer moved from her role at Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk, where she was responsible for the plant鈥檚 maintenance and inspections, to managing onshore renewable power assets. These include a solar farm which helps to power operations at Shell Moerdijk, Fengli鈥檚 previous workplace.
Her responsibilities in her new role go beyond those traditionally associated with an engineer. Fengli is currently making sure that the contractor who mows the lawn around the solar panels avoids the partridges, geese and skylarks nesting in the grass.
鈥淟ots of my skills are transferable, but in my old job I didn鈥檛 have to worry about nesting birds,鈥� she says. 鈥淟istening to the frogs and birds, and occasionally seeing deer, makes me feel blessed.鈥�
In the USA, Danielle Jensen and her husband David Hasselbeck both moved into offshore wind projects after working as engineers on oil and gas projects for Shell.
鈥淢oving from New Orleans to Boston took a bit of getting used to, particularly the cold winters,鈥� Danielle says. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 super happy we鈥檝e made the switch.
鈥淚鈥檝e been using lots of my old skills in the new job. People don鈥檛 always realise how transferable their skills are.鈥�
