Could sector score with loan deals?

Afootball-style loan transfer scheme is being looked at by the oil and gas industry to enable bosses to move offshore workers from platform to platform and between different companies. Is this the answer to the industry’s prayers right now?

However the downturn pans out, there have to be revolutionary changes in day-to-day working practices to make the industry more bomb-proof from economic shocks.

Closer collaboration between firms – to save money and pool skills – has been the mantra since oil industry leader Sir Ian Wood floated the idea in a report to the UK Government. The urgency intensified as the downturn began to bite hard.

Only recently, Sir Ian warned that progress on this front, and many others including better and sharper innovation, was slow. Efforts to exploit smaller, challenging reservoirs of oil, left behind in the past, is now a top priority.

It would seem inevitable that such challenges will require closer collaboration and sharing expertise to maximise margins.

It has now been revealed that industry thinktanks are actively weighing up a “loan transfer” scheme to share workers around where they are most needed. Aberdeen FC is helping with the finer detail of the loan market.

The temporary loan option for players and clubs has underpinned the UK football transfer system for years – it helps clubs get through short-term operating crises caused by player shortages, while retaining and honing talent that might be lost to the game otherwise. It’s a goal not lost on the offshore industry.

“It has been revealed that industry think-tanks are weighing up a ‘loan transfer’ scheme”