T&T
Petroleum Conference (TTPC): Promoting energy and
people
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 17 06
With
the symposium on the aluminium industry successfully
completed, the STCIC has turned its attention to
our annual T&T Petroleum Conference (TTPC),
the premier energy sector conference in the region.
The theme for TTPC 2007, which will take place on
February 5 and 6, 2007 at the Hilton Trinidad and
Conference Centre, will be “Energy and People.”
The
energy sector, like all other industries, is run
by people. Exploring for oil, building an LNG train
or converting natural gas to methanol and ammonia
are all intrinsically people processes. The energy
sector is cognisant of this reality and has made
investments in its people by way of compensation
and training.
The
business of energy itself is the most global business
in the world and requires that companies operate
in communities in every corner of the planet. Understanding
how energy companies interact with people both internally,
in the form of employee relations and, externally,
in the form of interacting with host communities,
is critical to achieving success.
The
increase in demand for oil, natural gas and related
downstream commodities will require companies to
take more risk, expand operations, form alliances
with other companies, and develop and adopt new
technologies.
Companies
will be required to explore and produce oil and
gas from technically demanding locations while petrochemical
plants will have to become more competitive and
take advantages of economies of scale.
Today,
the global energy sector is more complex than ever.
Increasingly petrochemical and metal companies that
once comfortably operated in the United States and
Europe have moved operations to other countries
with more competitive gas prices. These challenges
all have a very human dimension to them.
Cross
cultural issues
One
of these human challenges is coming to terms with
cross cultural issues. In a world where companies
are increasingly moving beyond the borders of their
home country and there is increasing fluidity in
the global labour market, cross cultural issues
and managing workplace diversity will as a consequence
become an issue.
Traditionally,
business has been essentially monocultural with
its values and culture aligned to the country where
the company originated. In the globalised world
this would obviously have to change.
A
relatively new term in the language of business
is cultural Intelligence. An October 2004 Harvard
Business Review paper defines cultural intelligence
or (CQ) as, “an outsider’s seemingly
natural ability to interpret someone’s unfamiliar
and ambiguous gestures the way that person’s
compatriots would.”
From
a business point of view, this speaks to the ability
of organisations to collectively understand and
come to terms with cultural differences among employees
and in the communities in which they operate. The
concept may seem simple but it can really mean make
of break for those companies that fail to come to
terms with cultural differences.
As
companies become more multinational and draw their
work pool from different countries the importance
of integrating local employees and foreign staff
has increased. Cultural differences affect the way
people perceive each other in the workplace with
this perception affecting behaviour and worker performance
which in turn affects firm performance.
Global
age gap
Another
human challenge faced by the energy sector is an
age gap.
Globally,
the sector is faced with an ageing workforce and
a global employment gap. In its March 2006 issue,
the Petroleum Economist quoted from a study by the
Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) consultancy which states
that 50 per cent of professional exploration and
production staff are aged 40-50 while only around
15 per cent are in their early 20s to mid 30s. These
issues, if not urgently addressed, will lead to
skills shortages in the global energy sector by
the year 2010. Based on these figures, BAH estimates
that half of the world’s professional exploration
and production workforce will retire in the next
ten years.
The
main reason for the global age gap in the oil industry
can be traced back to the mid-1980s to early 1990s
when the industry was in decline due to low oil
prices. During this period workers were laid off
and companies scaled back on graduate recruitment
programmes. The Petroleum Economist also cites the
fact that the industry has an image problem in the
minds of young people which explains their reluctance
in choosing a career in oil (It may be interesting
to see to what extent this problem exists in T&T,
if at all).
In
a December 4 speech in Abu Dhabi, BP’s group
vice president of technology, Tony Meggs, noted
that for the last 15 years the oil industry had
been in a mode of consolidation with hiring levels
at a low. The result according to Meggs is a workforce
with an average age somewhere in the 40s. Meggs
further noted that one of the biggest challenges
facing the industry today was how it could attract,
develop and inspire the talented young people who
will lead the industry into the future.
In
T&T, in an attempt to address the problem identified
by Meggs and others, the industry and government
have focused on the supply-side aspect of the labour
market with companies forging alliances with universities.
In
T&T, alliances have been forged with the two
local universities (UWI and UTT) as well as with
universities in the USA, Canada, the UK and Spain.
Corporate
social responsibility
The
third human challenge is the firm’s relationship
with its business environment in the form of the
host community. Energy companies are becoming increasingly
aware that forging good relations with host communities
is good for business. The old school of thought
that the only responsibility of business is to make
a profit has given away to a more holistic vision
of business.
Against
this backdrop, corporate social responsibility (CSR)
has emerged as a mechanism to foster deeper and
more meaningful relationships with host communities.
Integral in this relationship is the importance
of meaningful corporate citizenship.
While
internal relationships between employer and employee
are important for the overall health of the organisation,
the relationship between the company and the community
is also important. On an increasing basis companies—especially
multinational companies operating in foreign countries—are
realising that the management of their relationship
with the host communities can enhance their business
environment.
Corporate
social responsibility is one tool that can be used
to manage this relationship. On a global scale CSR
has found a champion in the United Nations. Last
month, the STCIC became the first organisation from
T&T to become a signatory to the United Nations
Global Compact.
Further
details on TTPC 2007, including details of presenters,
registration and sponsorship opportunities are available
on the STCIC Web site at www.stcic.org
The
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 14th December 2006
Copyright
©2006 The Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
