According to Rebecca Schulz, energy supply and investment consultant for the International Energy Agency (IEA) and strategy consultant for Shell, there are three important factors that leaders need to recognize as the industry transitions into new, cleaner technologies that will meet global energy demand in the coming decades, and beyond.
The first thing, Schulz said humbly, is "everything we think we know about the energy transition is probably going to be wrong. I think we can all agree on that."
The second factor, she said, is that there is a huge amount of opportunity that exists in the energy transition.
"We need the opportunity and this innovation to move forward," Schulz said.
Finally, the third consideration is that petroleum engineering and related skills are critically essential to moving forward in the energy transition to net zero.
"The world has made a huge amount of progress (in controlling emissions) in a very, very short amount of time," Schulz said. "In the future, as we move to net zero, the spending on upstream and downstream oil and gas is on par with the same technology that utilizes skill sets of the petroleum engineering environment."
Schulz noted that in late October 2022, the IEA released the World Energy Employment Report. One major takeaway from the report reveals that "new energy projects are the major driver of employment, with around 65%of energy workers employed to build and deploy new solar plants, wellheads, heat pumps, cars and more."
Schulz said she considers the report to be "one of the first reports that really goes into depth on the energy sector's employment and how that will transition in different scenarios, and what types of skills sets are needed."
In 2019, Schulz said the energy sector accounts for about 2% of global employment. "Within that, fuel supply employs about 21 million people, the power sector about 20 million people and end use about 24 million people," she said.
"Looking ahead into 2023, the first thing is that energy employment grows significantly," Schulz continued. "There is a lot more investment related to energy across the board in several clean energy spaces. The net zero scenario will bring upwards of about 30 million new jobs, worldwide."
A lot of these new employment opportunities, Schulz added, "are going to rely upon the entrepreneurs, the innovation and the new job sectors that need to build not just the new emissions technologies that we have today, but also the ones that we're going to need beyond 2030."
There are very different mindsets around what the energy sector opportunities will look like, beyond oil and gas, she said. "Some of those jobs in oil and gas in the energy transition world are going to be focusing on emissions reduction opportunities, and how we better utilize digitalization to be able to detect leaks and stop them faster."
But a lot of the jobs also move into sectors "that really haven't grown yet," like biotechnology in energy, geothermal and offshore wind.
"All of these sectors start to become a new phase of opportunity for innovation," Schulz said, speaking on a panel at the 2022 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) held in Houston.
Panelists agreed there is a growing need for stronger advocacy to the general public, especially to younger people in high school, to consider careers in the energy sector as long-term industry employees age out of the workforce and enter retirement.
Jeanne Perdue, a technical writer and editor with Occidental, said she recognizes the imminent challenge of recruiting younger people to energy.
Perdue also sits on University of Houston's Engineering and Petroleum Advisory Board. In that capacity, she has observed a rather simplistic, albeit effective, method of introducing students to the burgeoning employment opportunities offered by the industry.
"We are working hard to draw students into the engineering programs, and into petroleum, in particular," Perdue said. "Pizza works. If you offer pizza, the kids will show up and then you can do your show-and-tell."
