Forum menu
Is there likely that much work will come out of Decommissioning?
"Is there likely that much work will come out of Decommissioning?"
work- yes
cost driven - yes
Enviromentally scrutinized - yes
Local - unlikely 🙁
Safety ??
think about how they decommission other large sea bound structures.
There will be some, but it's usually quite hands on (so jobs for trades like welding) rather than engineers, and there'll still be the oversupply of labor so the rates won't be the same.
I work for a valve manufacturer here in Yorkshire.
We supply position sensors to valve manufacturers, work is still coming in, but Not nearly as much as it was.
what sort wors?
Hydraulic ,Linear and radial mostly.
as people just dont want to spend any cash or actually dont have it.Best to cancel all non required spending now its going to get worse.
Already happening:
[url= http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/22/fears-for-economy-as-christmas-dip-in-retail-sales-is-revealed ]Xmas spending fell[/url]
It's all a bit shit really. As of today I am redundant (no warning, just told at 16:00 to get out within 30 minutes) so back to the defence industry for me.
To be honest I doubt the company will last out the next financial year as they have barely won any contracts in the last half year. Add to that they are so arrogant as to think they are so good they don't need to reduce rates (still charging pre-price drop rates) in line with the prevailing market. Hope all the other engineers there get out before it implodes.
I wonder what an independent Scotland would look like right now?
I'm just waiting for one of the big oil companies to bomb the Saudis of their own volition.
I know four people at the sharp end and one saw this coming so built a big war chest and has retired the other three were all given jobs by the first guy (no skills roughnecks) years ago and they have huge mortgages and range rovers on the tick added to that their wives continue to spend - one has just got a minimum wage job gone from £45 an hour to £6 others contemplating bankruptcy/IVA nothing lasts forever as they say
plenty of jittery folk around here, and I know several local businesses really suffered with folk leaving for rough jobs offshore; not sure how they'll be getting on..
we are on the periphery in some ways, suppliers of software to the industry, but in some ways as we focus on improvements that can be made, any improvements will appear on the bottom line quite easily. Trouble is getting the industry to spend any cash at all.
My ex employer of ~ 30 years started the shedding process mid-2014. I was fortunate to an extent - redundancy followed by another job with a similar but bigger locally similar company.
Still there for the moment but each say, week, month and quarter is a blessing. Hope it continues as it's a great job with great folks and the company has improved all key business measures significantly over the last 18 months.
Then oil price drops further again....
I know plenty other folks who have lost their jobs - some with dire financial consequences due to big houses, big mortgages and notable monthly costs for cars, etc, etc. Some have war chests, some none.
This stretches right through the supply chain where O&G is primary revenue provider.
Sympathy may be limited as many folks believe everyone in O&G earns 6 figure salaries.
Sadly if we consider it a manufacturing and not based primarily in the SE fiscal support may be limited.
sorry reading on this thread--i'm in construction ,which has been very patchy these last ten years.Not any chance of a war chest in our game--rates are just about making a weekly wage....i suppose its no consolatio but the steel makers have the same issue, apart from the fact once they shut a plant its gone froever.....always the bike!
Subsea engineer here. It's a grim outlook right now. Given the extravagance of the industry in recent years, not to mention our contribution to wrecking the planet, I don't think we are collectively deserving of much sympathy. However when it's people your know, perhaps even yourself, it's difficult not to feel some. I fear for the NE of Scotland. Nobody really knows what will happen to the oil price, who can say what kind of geopolitical event might trigger some unexpected chain of events, but it's very difficult to envisage the industry returning to what it was 2 years. Ever.
It will only get worse before it gets better but the consensus is that when it comes back it will always be a much smaller workforce....
Some of our suppliers and machine shops have laid off 80% of their staff. The majority of people in the industry are not going offshore and making the big bucks and these guys are hurting now...
About a year ago we started seeing o&g workers trying to get into consulting engineering. The overinflated salary expectations were unbeliveable (2 years post grad looking for 40k thats 25k in real jobs). But the biggest problem is transferable skills and general reluctance of companies to retrain people with loads of experience. Feel sorry for a lot of people affected tbh.
It all sounds a bit grim.
However it does sound like wages have been way over inflated and the industry swimming in profit in the good years (I know that's not the industry in Scotland's fault, supply and demand and all that)
If things do pick up again will companies keep financial reserves to deal with such down turns, or keep paying inflated wages and paying shareholders handsomely?
I was speaking with a climber mate who does consultancy work for various firms. He was saying that the main problem is as all the big finds have been found there's only smaller stuff left. Their explotation is wholly dependent on existing pipeline infrastructure so if things get mothballed/shutdown no way will these be economic enough to open up on their own. He envisages any come back as being reduced capacity.
Whilst personally I have suffered from the distortion oil money has brought to the NE I have sympathy for those in the lower paid jobs getting shafted. Those who've blown their wad on big houses and trophy cars, well, not really. If you were earning a decent wedge you should've kept one eye on the future.
The oil industry has been short sighted. They were reluctant to train new staff preferring to 'buy in' new poaching from competitors thus forcing up wages. In my brief stint as a contract draffie (25 years ago!) guys were changing jobs for 50p/hour. Greed is not pretty. The last real oil price crash was in the early eighties (I think). So I guess it's been building from then.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/23/aberdeen-once-rich-oil-city-now-relying-on-food-banks
Sounds very grim, my wife did well out of the industry, fortunately she's very good with money, we don't do flashy holidays or cars (zafira !!) We've just moved and reduced our mortgage and built up some savings
Despite recently discovering we are pregnant with twins and my science salary we should be alright
I think the UK O & G will never be the same, like our lack of a sovereign wealth fund the companies and many workers the money has not been spent wisely (overall much of the £bns in boom money was stashed offshore or put into the property market...)
The US oil companies that set up the industry in the 70s made a big effort to prevent unionisation.
I bet Alex Salmond is secretly breathing a sigh of relief with the NO vote........ Oil and gas industry on the skids, he would be just now getting rid of the subs....
I bet Alex Salmond is secretly breathing a sigh of relief with the NO vote........ Oil and gas industry on the skids, he would be just now getting rid of the subs....
Surprised at how long it took for someone to have a dig. Oil is not the basis of the Scottish economy, it's a bonus.
Thankfully we're still in the Union so we're being spared all the job losses, eh 🙄
we are pregnant with twins
One each, I assume?
It may be a 'bonus' but its a huge bonus. What we're seeing now is the effect of the recedsion diluted across the UK. Imagine if all that hurt was on Scotland which is 1/10 of the population.
I'd imagine it would be a less severe version of what is happening in Norway which is in the process of going from being disgustingly rich to merely very very rich.
Although the effect would probably be lessened by the fact that Scotland isn't as reliant on oil.
Amazon are recruiting and our local RNLI are recruiting lifeguards, so theres jobs out there for all those unemployed oil and gas staff and theyll provide training.
and as norman tebbit once said get on your bike and travel, just like his dad did..
Thats how this lot in power think.
[img] 
[/img]
Quality, will use that!