Over the last five years, there has been an upturn in investment in the energy sector, especially in the Middle East, which has resulted in a real focus from Petroplan on delivering talent solutions to the energy industry to support that growth. In the last couple of years, we have seen the energy sector face significant challenges sourcing the talent they need to support their projects.
Whilst there have been plenty of projects available, the pandemic resulted in the closure of borders in many countries, and it was extremely challenging getting engineers on site during that period. We have seen a shift in the region as many agencies turned to supplying talent from within their nation to ensure that projects maintained momentum.
Driven in part by political pressures to generate more employment for citizens, governments are setting quotas and businesses have begun to place talent from within country rather than looking internationally for talent to fulfil roles. International movement of labour has resumed once again as COVID-19 restrictions lift around the world, but companies are continuing to look for ways to source talent from within region too.
As a company – at Petroplan – we have accelerated the expansion of our operations in the region to support this demand while at the same time finding new and innovative ways to plug the gap with the required skillsets in a candidates’ market.
The current market is very much candidate driven. Employers across the globe are looking for more transferable skills in their employees, especially following the pandemic where adaptability and flexibility have become key demands in the workforce. In this sector, the key transferable skills are project solutions and refining; it is the knowledge and specialisms that differ.
Shortage of talent in the immediate future
As senior managers start to acknowledge and embrace a more active environmental conscience, more time and money is being invested in the broader energy market and moving away from oil & gas.
Therefore, skills must be applicable to new projects, and time must be invested in expanding knowledge into renewables and sustainability. Recently, we have also seen larger players in the Middle Eastern energy sector turn to new projects and ways to help fulfil the potential of the region.
This has seen an increased focus on infrastructure projects, such as NEOM in Saudi Arabia, a future city and tourist destination that is being built in the north-western region of the country. Such projects show the scale of investment being pumped into the Middle East, with large industry players keen to reap the benefits of the energy sector.
Projects like NEOM aim to keep tourism and workforce within region and help to concentrate and retain the level of wealth generated internally and minimise the loss to foreign investors. As the energy industry grows and becomes busier, the world is becoming less dependent on oil & gas.
Given recent crises in the rising price of oil and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is promising that the energy sector is diversifying into renewables and drawing in more regions across the globe and in doing so, bringing more talent on board.
Opportunities for renewable energy abound with a massive level of investment throughout the Middle East. While there will continue to be a shortage of talent in the immediate future, the most crucial factor facing the sector right now is workforce retention.
Companies are becoming better at retaining their key people, and this is crucial to the future success of the Middle East energy sector as it continues to grow.
The bounce back from the pandemic and the increasing level of investment means that companies are turning their attention to new projects, and the challenge for our industry is to help them find the talent to bring those projects to life.