Oil, gas and downstream industries hampered by shortage
of skills
By Sandra Chouti
Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtrinidad.com
05 21 06
There’s
a real challenge to get experienced people to fill
jobs in the oil and gas and downstream sectors,
said one company executive.
Mark
Loquan, president of Yara Trinidad Ltd, says, “In
the downstream sector, where I am, there has been
over the years more people moving around in ammonia
and methanol. I think now you’re seeing clearly
people have been taken by the upstream industries,
the BPs, the BGs, so it’s a real challenge
to get resources.”
Part
of the problem is the natural cycle of change.
“People
are ageing and retiring. We have to refocus a lot
more on the recruitment efforts. That also means
building some good partnerships with the source
institutions, such as UWI,” Loquan said.
He
was speaking before the UWI Faculty of Engineering’s
advisory council earlier this month when the faculty
celebrated its 45th anniversary.
Loquan
is a member of the Faculty/Industry Advisory Committee.
Members were invited to the meeting to discuss the
engineering faculty’s strategic direction
and programme, research and extension offerings.
Stating
that industries such as Yara no longer have the
luxury of simply placing a newspaper advertisement
to fill a vacancy, Loquan said the challenge of
finding resources today do not include future projects,
such as LNG trains, aluminium smelters and more
oil and gas exploration and production projects.
“So,
there’s a lot of activity down the road. My
fear actually is, how is this all co-ordinated in
terms of institutional capacity and even skill capacity?”
Loquan said.
“We
see a scarcity of experienced people. We also see
younger, less experienced staff in very senior positions
lacking the substance at times.”
He
said he’s noticed a change from people working
with a company for many years to more mobility between
industries because more money is being offered.
“It
has forced us to look in the whole Yara system,
where we belong, globally. And it has forced us
to look even in places such as the Far East where
there may be experienced engineering people available,”
Loquan said.
He
said Yara has hired about 25 people from institutions
such as Metal Industries Company Ltd, the University
of T&T and the College of Science, Technology
and Applied Arts of T&T (Costatt) for its summer
programme.
“Traditionally,
numbers like this would have been very high to carry,
now we’re talking 25 as if that’s the
norm,” Loquan said.
The
Faculty of Engineering was established in 1961 at
the St Augustine campus and provides degrees in
engineering, surveying and land information and
geosciences.
The
faculty has produced 5,924 graduates right across
the Caribbean including many of those who hold leading
jobs at the Point Lisas industrial estate.
Trinidad
Business Guardian
Thursday 18th May 2006
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2005 Trinidad Guardian.
All Rights Reserved.
