Australia Experiencing Shortage of Workers in Oil and Gas Industry

Australia is experiencing a shortage of workers in the energy sector. Due to construction of LNG export projects there has been a demand for workers. Chevron is attempting to hold information sessions in an effort to recruit workers. The high demand for engineers include subsea, civil, structural, pipeline design and construction as well as marine engineers. Bechtel is one of the leading companies in the area having built more than one third of the LNG projects in Australia. In Queensland, where they are responsible for construction on Curtis Island, 6,000 workers had to be moved back and forthacross the harbor for work. The company has attempted to modularize the job process by farming out some parts of the projects to shipyards in South East Asia. The Australian government is also attempting to address the labor shortage by implementing programs training mid-career workers from other careers for roles in the oil and gas industry. Due to the retirement of the Baby Boomers and a lack of focus on the training of technical and trade workers, younger applicants have been difficult to find. Companies are making changes by shifting workers within the companies to meet needs and using temporary local workers in maintenance roles. Currently the oil and gas industry is competing with the mining and other industries for workers.