Despite record levels of investment the global petrochemical industry is at the precipice of a potentially severe stagnation.
With rampant development all around it’s becoming harder and more expensive than ever to track down the vital raw material which cannot be mined, or its production ramped up to meet demand.
Wherever you turn in the industry, from the polymers and plastics sector, to refinery construction a skilled manpower crisis isn’t just looming, it’s here.
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The lack of suitably qualified personnel can mean projects shelved and millions of dollars lost, and unless urgent action is taken to solve the growing recruitment crisis, it’s a situation that will continue to deteriorate.
Of all the widespread challenges currently being experienced the petrochemicals industry, this particular issue is already determining success on a corporate level.
Smaller companies, which often excel in serving the myriad of niche services across the product development industry, are vanishing. As fixed salary costs exceed budgetary realities, only those companies with deep pockets can meet these astronomical salary demands.
As national basic industry companies, super-majors, contractors and the associated service sector giants poach each other’s staff for spiralling salaries, the sector remains highly lucrative for those individuals willing to hop-skip and jump up the career ladder.
However, even at the biggest companies, for managing directors, department heads, and CEOs managing this cost inflation is becoming an ever-trickier game. With specialist salaries jumping 50% or more in a year budgets and cost projections are off by some margin.
The industry has reacted positively with scholarships and training initiatives, but in the current climate has found itself well short of the mark. In the Middle East we have seen several institutes aimed at churning out the calibre of staff needed to operate at this highly skilled end of the business launched, including the Petroleum institute in Abu Dhabi.
In the current high price environment the potential is there for the region to become a global hub for talent nurturing, with centres of excellence and first class training facilities dotted around the GCC.
The only barrier to success here is the will and effort to bring such a vision to fruition. Bridging the skills gap may be a perennial problem for the industry, but the opportunity for the Middle East to set itself apart has never been greater.
Stuart Matthews is the Senior Group Editor of ITP Business.
