As always, when activity in any sector is on the upward curve, companies within that business get worried about the available talent pool.

The E&P industry’s aging work force and the relative lack of “new blood” entering the business is nothing new. But for those suddenly worrying that too little is being done too late, there was evidence at two separate gatherings of leading upstream experts that this perennial problem is being tackled responsibly.

The health of the subsea industry itself is looking very robust after years of growth. Infield Systems analyst Anna Karra told delegates at the Subsea 2013 event in Aberdeen, Scotland, that the subsea market will average US $25 billion annually in global capex from 2013 to 2017.

With nearly 90% of the companies having seen turnover and profits rise last year (with more than half reporting growth of 20% and a fifth reporting more than 50% growth), Subsea UK CEO Neil Gordon flagged fast-growing segments such as inspection, repair and maintenance, integrity and reliability, decommissioning, and offshore wind power.

But he went on to acknowledge the continued challenge of finding, recruiting, and retaining skilled individuals. The survey, he said, had revealed the rather startling statistic that 88% of Subsea UK’s members had cited this as their biggest constraint to growth.

This is why the industry association is pushing a “conversion transition” program to find more skilled people more quickly, assisted in their transition from other industries or the military services.

With an estimated 10,000 people needed within the next year in the UK alone to cope with current and short-term future subsea demand, the industry has a pressing need.

One of the main players in several sectors, including subsea, is GE Oil & Gas. CEO Daniel Heintzelman pointed out at the company’s annual event in Italy that around half of the oil sector’s 10 million workers are eligible to retire in 2015.

GE has been extremely proactive in this regard, running its own oil and gas university in Florence, Italy, and opening up new subsea centers (one is planned for Bristol in the UK this year). The company also plans to open a global learning center in Brazil.

But Heintzelman, acknowledging today’s fast growth in subsea, pointed out that GE also was able to take advantage of its own science and technology departments supporting other industries. “We reach into these centers from time to time based upon our needs and some of the challenges we identify working with our customers,” he said. “And I can tell you that it’s extremely helpful because we take technologies that are originally developed for the aviation industry or for the health care industry, and we have found ways to apply them into this space.”

The human resource issue remains a massive one. But the above efforts illustrate that the issue is not going unaddressed.

Offshore