Well, it's the expectation of Terry Noble, lead consultant for the Energy and Utilities Practice, Odgers Interim. Let's read his view.
Despite the market’s challenging period, there won’t be a Kodak moment. Oil and gas isn’t going anywhere and the reality is that the transition to 100% renewable energy use in the UK won’t happen in our lifetimes. Globally, emerging countries will also want to capitalise on their oil reserves – providing, literally and figuratively, a pipeline of growth for the future.
The industry will also become more collaborative. The billions of pounds spent on exploration and building platforms in new oil fields will be shared amongst multiple industry backers. As a whole, the oil and gas industry will become significantly more risk-averse, with companies working on joint ventures in order to avoid another big downturn.
The aversion to risk will filter into the organisational culture, with companies looking at how they can run leaner and meaner operations. Having project teams sitting around waiting in the wings for a new assignment will no longer exist. The industry will rely more and more on flexible workers to be brought in for specific projects. Expect the ‘gig economy’ to come to the oil and gas industry.
Technology will be a facilitator in the transformation of organisations. The future of oil and gas is unmanned platforms, with workers transitioning from offshore to onshore office-based roles. Generalist manager roles will die out as the demand for short-term, niche skill sets to implement IT systems and bring oil fields ‘online’ grow.