Oman Oil & Gas sector urged to be geared for job upheavals linked to Industry 4.0
TRANSFORMATIONAL IMPACTS: ‘We need to understand what types of job will completely disappear from the radar screen and support new disciplines that will be created by the 4th Industrial Revolution’
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, driven by disruptive technologies and innovations, is projected to transform the labour market in the global Oil & Gas industry, eliminating the need for certain types of skills while spawning the demand for entirely new skillsets — a scenario that Oman’s energy sector will have to be suitably prepared for as well, a top official of the Ministry of Oil & Gas has warned.
Salim bin Nasser al Aufi (pictured), Under-secretary, urged the Oil & Gas fraternity in the Sultanate to pull together in understanding the challenges that the industry is anticipated to face once the 4th Industrial Revolution begins to unleash its transformational impacts.
He made the appeal at the opening of the OPAL Oil & Gas Conference, which began at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre on Sunday.
Al Aufi noted in particular potential impacts for human capital developmental efforts in the Oil & Gas industry. “Human capital development is an area that continues to grow, and I think the 4th Industrial Revolution will only make it more exciting. There’s already a lot of discussion on what kind of jobs will be created over the next 5-10 years, and what jobs will completely disappear from the radar screen. So we need to understand what implications this will have on the people that are currently doing those jobs, and those who are in the pipeline expecting jobs only to discover that they no longer exist.”
In this regard, the Under-secretary welcomed the inclusion of key topics, notably digitalisation, in the programme agenda of the OPAL Oil & Gas Conference. Such themes, which include a focus on talent development, gender diversity, and so on, concern issues and challenges faced by the energy sector on a regular basis, he said.
“There are a lot of challenges ahead of us, particularly in the area of digitalisation, the 4th Industrial Revolution, and so on, which will happen whether we are part of it or not. It’s better to be part of it than be left out. I can see a lot of companies putting in place their strategies in this particular area; It’s good to understand what’s happening so they can align strategies to a large extent, and not feel left out.”
According to experts, the 4th Industrial Revolution — driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, genome editing, Internet of Things (IOT), augmented reality, Machine Learning, robotics, 3-D printing, and so on — will rapidly change the way humans create, exchange, and distribute value.
The global oil and gas industry, in particular, will experience digital disruption at rates that will drastically alter common operating procedures in use today. Industry 4.0, as the new wave of disruption is also dubbed, will bring fully-automated drilling operations, autonomous inspection of pipelines and the rig-less plugging and abandonment of wells, and so on. Consequently, a large number of conventional skillsets will disappear, while new disciplines will emerge in their wake, it is pointed out.