Shell prepared for bumpy ride
Published on: Thursday, June 16, 2016
Johor: Amid the challenging global oil price environment that has forced oil and gas industry players to restructure, oil giant Shell remains keen in promoting local talents to meet future demand of skilled manpower.Although prediction of recovery is impossible to make, the company that has a proud 125-year history in the country believes the answer to the chicken and egg question is all about balance and readiness.Oil and gas companies including Shell have been forced to restructure in reaction to challenging oil price.
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But there have been questions how they would refill their need for skilled workforce if and when signs of recovery begin to show. "If you look at the broader environment, every company has gone through some form of restructuring. Every oil and gas company has gone through that cycle whether last year or are still going through it now. And that's just a reflection of a lower volume of work," said Ian Lim, Sabah Shell Malaysia General Manager.
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"But the danger is that in times like this people stop investing in talent and training. Not so much the oil and gas companies but the vendors and the government and vocational schools.And typically what happens when the market picks up we start to award jobs, vendors start to look for people who are qualified. The danger you get there is you won't get Sabahans or Malaysians but the work needs to be done then you increase your wage cost by looking for international (workers).
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You get into this wage cycle where you never have enough trained locals that you can hire when times are good but when times are not good and there's not enough work you lose the ability to train," he added.He reiterated the company's interest to play its role in connecting government and educational sectors particularly the local institutions with some of its key vendors in order to deliver what the industry requires and further enable the local content agenda.He said the company could also influence the young people who are still in school to have a better understanding about the oil and gas career especially a careers in sub-surface engineering that is unknown to most people."We are keen in playing a role on increasing the awareness of local institutions in the State on what is oil and gas. On the training side I think both the government and our vendors can play a role but we can't influence that at this stage," said Lim.He however advised that it takes young people quite a while to be trained before they can enter the workforce. "But when we promote this, it does not mean that people can assume they can get trained today and be awarded contracts tomorrow.Under the current environment this is not the case. But the government and the education sectors must still think about this in order to be ready when the industry needs to hire," he said before the Sail Away ceremony of Malikai Tension Leg Platform (TLP) at Pasir Gudang last Friday.A majority of the team involved in the project, the first of its kind in the country, were Malaysians. "Malikai has proven the capability of our industry in Malaysia thanks to it significant local content contributions. The platform is designed in Malaysia; built in Malaysia; and of course operated by Malaysians. An overwhelming majority of the project team are Malaysians," Datuk Iain Lo, Chairman of Shell Malaysia had said.The nearly 30,000-tonne platform has been commissioned and is ready to make its historic 1,400km journey from Pasir Gudang to Malikai field located 100km offshore Sabah, where it will be installed in water depths of 500 metres. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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