Conference panel debates technology and personnel

Offshore staff

AMSTERDAM -- A panel of industry executives yesterday debated the issue of new technology replacing personnel in the oil and gas industry. The panel of four was split by those in favor of new technology to reduce personnel vs. those in favor of increasing staff to improve efficiencies.

According to Jeff Saile, senior VP business development & HSE, ENSCO, who is in favor of adding people, the total number of personnel on rigs is increasing. "The number of people onboard rigs has increased by 50-70% since the 1970s, and I expect this upward trend to continue," he says.

Panelist, Paul Goodfellow, EP Americas, Shell E&P Co., agrees that technology will not solve our people problem. "Not all new technology will automatically lead to efficiency gains," says Goodfellow.

However, he did cite a case where technology was an asset in enabling Shell to select the optimal field development solution for a project. "We plan to develop Great White in the Gulf of Mexico with 20 wells. After using the latest 3-D well visualization, we were able to look at six different 20-well scenarios."

One of the opponents, Bill, with Halliburton, believes that technology can reduce human asset needs by at least 10-15%. "With our real-time operations center (RTOC), you can monitor four rigs with six people compared to 36 without ROTC," says Bill. "Real-time technology has grown by 200% over the last two years. In addition, RTOC will attract young, diversified people, and improve employee retention," he adds.

The panel discussion was held at the SPE/IADC conference in Amsterdam.

2/22/2007