I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T STA L E N T N AT I O N A L I S AT I O N

Talent Nationalisation has evolved through varying factors. However, we believe one of the leading causes to be through

universities and the history of engineering. Within the Europe, the US, Norway and to a degree Australia, the age of the

engineering courses are considerably older than they are in other countries. This is because the traditional oil and gas hubs

had educational institutions that were covering these technical aspects earlier than other engineering establishments. Back in

the 1950’s when offshore production really kicked off the systems in place were developed in the western oil hubs and then

shipped over to other locations like South East Asia, Shell took the first drilling rig over there that was designed in Europe

and transported across. The nature of this means that the engineers in some countries have a considerably larger amount

of experience, for example if recruiters are looking for a riser engineer with 25+ years of experience it is rare that this is

from an eastern university as subsea engineering degrees were not developed there 30 years ago to generate such skill set.

However, it is important for economic growth to maximise local employment and not have to depend on expatriate workers.

The aim of talent nationalisation is remarkable, to have every country independent and all acquiring the same skill set across

the board would be incredibly beneficial; however the speed at which countries are hoping to achieve this and the trends in

hiring that we have seen over time suggest an unrealistic outlook.

T h e A d v a n t a g e s

Various companies who have looked to develop their service portfolio have brought their specialities over to London. As

they have spotted talent and certain skill sets that they are unable to obtain in their own countries that can complement and

develop their current offering. We have observed these types of skill set to range from technical design, subsea engineers,

risers and umbilical’s. An example would be Heerema who are based in the Netherlands and have just opened an office in

the UK as they saw a certain skill set that there was only a limited amount of in the Netherlands. In order to complete the

major projects and to grow as a company they required an office in the UK to utilise the talent base that is in London. This

brings out positives that can be drawn from a company bringing work into an economy.

Ta l e n t N a t i o n a l i s a t i o n

T h e D i s a d v a n t a g e s

The nature of some countries having a shortage of specific technical experience has resulted in the harder aspects of the

projects not being completed in one location. As a result, they are farmed out to other regions - increasing the calibre and the

quality of the engineering being done in the already advanced regions and decreasing the quality in less technically developed

locations further as they are never exposed to the tougher projects.

A result of this, a lot of engineers consider it a necessity to move to western locations to gain experience in these more

complex projects. Ultimately, nationalisation will eventually be able to continue, yet the concept of individual motivation and

natural instinct have developed so that an Eastern engineer looking to be nationalised back into an Eastern location will be

looking at that on an expat basis much the same as a western engineer would. Therefore this is not true nationalisation as we

understand it but forced and expensive nationalisation. Companies in these regions need to grow management personal but

at the correct rate and not have, as we see in some locations, engineering managers who have to employ expats or western

trained engineers to do the harder aspect of their projects. Trained engineers from the classic O&G hubs are rewarded

incredibly generously due to their high level of experience and particular skill sets that are required to fulfil the projects, yet

if the process had been managed from the outset this would perhaps not be such an issue. Instead there would be enough

truly local engineers that could complete the projects and not demand such high rates in these locations – decreasing the

cost for companies and increasing local jobs.

T h e R e c r u i t m e n t Pe r s p e c t i v e

Looking from a recruitment perspective, nationalisation at the correct rate will be a massive plus in the future. What is

incredibly important for any advancement is the concept of skill share. It is essential that developed engineering organisations

and projects skill share in order to spread the expertise and limit the skill set from being so condensed. The concept of

companies who have the ability to train and invite their more junior engineers from around the world into working on these

harder projects will be the organisations in the long run that have the higher skill set as they have shared that skill set from

the outset. This is one of the most important elements in a period of nationalisation.

LONDON

33 King William Street

London,

EC4R 9AS

+44 207 078 0550

subsea@lakinggroup.com

www.lakinggroup.com

SINGAPORE

3 Church Street,

#09-02, Singapore

049 483

+65 6589 4430

DUBAI

Po Box 54620

United Arab Emirates

Dubai

+971 (0)4 214 96