According to Scott Walker, principal rotating equipment engineer with Covestro LLC, there is a general growing concern, “particularly after the pandemic” of a deteriorating public attitude towards the oil and gas sectors.
This attitude, Walker believes, is especially prevalent among millennials and Generation Z (or centennials) and is negatively impacting the workforce, which could ultimately compromise the long-run viability of the industry.
“The broader emergence of alternative or renewable energy sources and technologies within the marketplace and public psyche didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago — they just weren’t commonplace in anyone’s psyche,” Walker said. “Tesla’s technology wasn’t a new development, but it has a lot of attention right now.”
This emergence, Walker said, has further fueled this perception bias against the traditional energy industries, particularly among the younger “more tech-savvy and connected” generations.
“The younger generation feels that big oil is a transitional industry,” Walker observed. “There’s also a preference or desire to work in more innovative or high-technology industries, and that’s often perceived or associated with the ‘green’ energy industries, not our traditional energy markets or industries.”
These objections to adequately attract younger people to careers within the oil and gas sector are not insurmountable, Walker said at the 11th Annual Chem, Petro and Refining Asset Reliability conference held in Houston.
“Perception is reality. How you communicate, and what you want (them) to understand” is adaptable,” he said.
“Younger generations have been immersed in technology their entire lives, which has led to a different platform for thinking, underpinned by the deep interconnection with technology,” Walker explained. “These generations have grown up with the internet, and the immediate, intense availability of intelligent data and connectivity.”
Consequently, millennials and centennials want interesting and challenging problems to solve, he said.
“They’re not placated by routine,” Walker continued. “They’ll endure it, but again, growing up in that technological age, they’re naturally geared to be more inquisitive and more capable in that sphere. They want challenges.”
“The expanded and real-time influence of electronic media, particularly social media, has elevated a sense of social conscience and purpose within the younger generations”. They are more self-aware of the impact that their efforts, endeavors and lives have upon the world, in general.”
To effectively recruit the younger generation workforce, it is imperative, Walker said, that “traditional energy industries highlight the current and expanding inherent technical depths, particularly with oil and gas as they seek to expand production into more complex geologies within that framework and responsibility of increasing environmental stewardship.”
“The constant focus of expansive, developing technology and the inherent connection with traditional industries needs to be elevated within the public thinking of younger generations,” he said.
Walker recommended highlighting how traditional energy industries are intimately intertwined with the application and development of new technology.
He also suggested increasing use of robotics, 3D printing and artificial intelligence to support workplace digitalization and sustainability, supercomputing and other technologies.
“Those factors and technologies are inherent with what has always been seen as traditional industries, we must embrace new technology to maximize productivity,” he said.
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