Recruiters see shale demand as UK extraction comes closer
13 June 2013
An announcement today from British Gas owner Centrica further confirms the likelihood of more shale gas projects in the UK – but in a skills-short market, workers with the right experience are already in demand across the globe.
Thu, 13 Jun 2013An announcement today from British Gas owner Centrica further confirms the likelihood of more shale gas projects in the UK – but in a skills-short market, workers with the right experience are already in demand across the globe.
Centrica’s £40m investment in acquiring a share in the Bowland, Lancashire-based shale exploration project comes after several months of pronouncements on the long term economic and employment benefits of shale gas exploration or ‘fracking’.
The firm’s managing director Mark Hanafin says the government has made a “clear commitment to developing the UK's shale gas industry” – seen for example in Chancellor George Osborne’s December 2012 Autumn Statement.
But as Texas-based oil & gas headhunter Mac MacLaren explains, the UK will always be at a disadvantage in this industry. In the US, there is simply more space between settlements and less probability that an extraction site will be situated awkwardly near residential areas, he explains.
MacLaren was speaking to Recruiter for the oil & gas Sector Focus on p14 of the new edition of the magazine, out this week.
Currently on contract with oilfield services firm Baker Hughes, he says that around a third of job specifications coming through him have some mention of unconventional or shale gas experience.
And Daniel McCourt, a managing consultant at global energy recruiter Leap29, notes other areas of the world where such projects are taking off, most prominently with “staff experience in the US is looking to be utilised and replicated in the Middle East where there are potential reserves of the unconventional gas”.
Significant projects are also underway in Canada and Poland, while the Neuquen region of Argentina is also likely to see new schemes start.
As the Sector Focus notes, McCourt says that “UK ambitions with shale gas will be expensive”, due to projects inevitably being sited near residential areas, meaning more safety expertise is needed.
Even if they are expensive, Phil Anderton, the operations director of contractor accountancy and umbrella firm Danbro, is confident that opportunities for oil & gas professionals in the UK will continue to grow.
“Everyone’s talking about Aberdeen”, he says, “but it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that beyond that we’re sitting here in Blackpool on a big reserve of shale gas, you’ve got the Morecambe Bay gas field, oil storage in Cheshire.
“The UK oil and gas market is going to change shape and expand and make new boom towns.”
Centrica’s £40m investment in acquiring a share in the Bowland, Lancashire-based shale exploration project comes after several months of pronouncements on the long term economic and employment benefits of shale gas exploration or ‘fracking’.
The firm’s managing director Mark Hanafin says the government has made a “clear commitment to developing the UK's shale gas industry” – seen for example in Chancellor George Osborne’s December 2012 Autumn Statement.
But as Texas-based oil & gas headhunter Mac MacLaren explains, the UK will always be at a disadvantage in this industry. In the US, there is simply more space between settlements and less probability that an extraction site will be situated awkwardly near residential areas, he explains.
MacLaren was speaking to Recruiter for the oil & gas Sector Focus on p14 of the new edition of the magazine, out this week.
Currently on contract with oilfield services firm Baker Hughes, he says that around a third of job specifications coming through him have some mention of unconventional or shale gas experience.
And Daniel McCourt, a managing consultant at global energy recruiter Leap29, notes other areas of the world where such projects are taking off, most prominently with “staff experience in the US is looking to be utilised and replicated in the Middle East where there are potential reserves of the unconventional gas”.
Significant projects are also underway in Canada and Poland, while the Neuquen region of Argentina is also likely to see new schemes start.
As the Sector Focus notes, McCourt says that “UK ambitions with shale gas will be expensive”, due to projects inevitably being sited near residential areas, meaning more safety expertise is needed.
Even if they are expensive, Phil Anderton, the operations director of contractor accountancy and umbrella firm Danbro, is confident that opportunities for oil & gas professionals in the UK will continue to grow.
“Everyone’s talking about Aberdeen”, he says, “but it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that beyond that we’re sitting here in Blackpool on a big reserve of shale gas, you’ve got the Morecambe Bay gas field, oil storage in Cheshire.
“The UK oil and gas market is going to change shape and expand and make new boom towns.”
