Morale is low: Offshore oil and gas workers open to shifting to renewables

How can we turn around morale in the oil and gas industry? I’m interested to know because a recent survey suggested the vast majority of people working in it are thinking about leaving because they don’t see how their future in it can be sustainable.

The survey was commissioned by Platform, Friends of the Earth Scotland, and Greenpeace UK and found most workers would leave the offshore gas and oil sector, believing it is “drawing to a close”.  One of the comments picked up in the survey was: “I’d like to see the renewables industry… become something we can be proud of and have it pick up some of the slack of the decline of oil and gas.”

However, of the 1400 people surveyed, 9 out of ten said they hadn’t heard of the term ‘just transition’ – the phrase which conveys the industry’s plans to deliver a fair, inclusive and sustainable transition to a low carbon future.

Ryan Morrison, Friends of the Earth Scotland just transition campaigner, told The Herald: “These workers are the backbone of our energy sector but have faced years of job insecurity amid volatile oil markets, lax regulation and now the global pandemic. Despite the Scottish Government’s rhetoric, the idea of a just transition has failed to reach the overwhelming majority of the workers who will be most directly impacted.”

Unsurprisingly job security was workers’ number one priority (58%), given that 43% of workers have been made redundant or furloughed since March.

This is something that an offshore worker anonymously picked up in an article for The Guardian when they said that 13 years ago the industry was stable and paid enough to make up for missing family and friends but now the “writing is on the wall: fossil fuels are contributing to global heating and sea and air pollution, while green alternatives are cleaner and becoming cheaper to produce.”

He said that while change was frightening, workers were realistic about the need for it to happen. “Workers are open to shifting to renewable energy if a proper training scheme is put in place for us. We won’t be able to take up new jobs overnight, so any training scheme will have to cover oil, gas and offshore wind, so that we’re able to work across industries as we begin the transition.”

A huge benefit is in the fact that the skills for offshore wind work are closely matched by the skills needed for offshore oil and gas and the group behind the survey has now called out both the UK and Scottish governments to meet with workers and use their experiences to develop recovery packages to manage the impact of Covid19 and ‘shape policy together’.

Gabrielle Jeliazkov, just transition lead campaigner for Platform, said: “If the UK government is serious about levelling up and transitioning to renewable energy, workers’ voices must be at the centre of that transition process.”

It makes complete sense to me to engage everyone in the conversation about where the offshore industry is going. We’ve managed the effects of brain drain before but what we’re going through now hasn’t ever been experienced before. It’s no surprise to me that so many workers are up for retraining – we learn new skills all the time. The smart choice is using this enthusiasm to build a better future for our offshore industry before it’s too late.