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The Economic Situation of the Oil & Gas Industry
The oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, consists of about 7,000 companies who pull in a combined, estimated revenue of around £450 billon. However, the production and associated revenue are fragmented; around 10% of companies generate approximately 60% of this figure. Demand for oil and gas is caused by economic activity, population growth and the need for energy for residential, industrial and transportation uses. The growth of an individual company is determined by the success rate of new finds, as well as the ability to continue to produce from existing sites.
Larger companies have the upper hand, having greater access to capital and the capacity to buy smaller companies or propagate amalgamations. Smaller companies rely on their abilities to focus on and develop expertise in a few geographical areas. In addition, oil and gas competes with other fuel-types, such as coal, nuclear power and hydro-electricity. In addition, other sources of energy are emerging, such as ethanol and bio-diesel and there are other forms of application arriving on the market, such as the new generation of hybrid-electric car.
Oil and gas are found in huge, underground basins that meet certain geological criteria. As well as creating three-dimensional maps of underground structures and using seismic waves to ascertain a site’s potential, exploratory drilling is still a major factor in finding oil and gas. Last year, the number of exploratory drillings that took place exceeded 53,500. Once an area has been designated as having promise, the area is cleared and a drilling rig and crew are brought in to begin the process of extracting the resources that have been found.
Oil and gas jobs generally fall in to one of two categories: upstream and downstream. Upstream jobs are found in the process of obtaining oil and gas from natural resources: drilling jobs are upstream jobs. Other jobs are likely to include those in construction and those involved in production facilities. Not all upstream jobs take place on land; for many, part of the attraction of this industry is its variety. Gas and oil fields are also developed below sea level, such as in the North Sea and the sub-sea sites recently discovered in West Africa. These require specialists to find and extract the resources available.
Downstream jobs involve the transportation of oil and gas in their basic forms, the liquefaction of those substances and their processing. While upstream jobs tend to be comparatively more transitory, being based on exploration and ultimate extraction, it is in the downstream category that gas and oil careers are made; while oil rig jobs, for example, will only last as long as the resource is there, marketing jobs can become life-long opportunities as the team packages the combined products across the globe.
The oil and gas industries are two of the world’s biggest and most profitable enterprises. They employ huge numbers of staff that work in an incredible range of department, from those on the ‘front-line’ to those who design advertising campaigns to those who put it in our vehicles.
Oil Rig Jobs Jobs Search is a job site dedicated to the specific needs of candidates who work in the Oil and Gas industry. We also provide recruiters with an online service that is effective in terms of cost and ease of use. Contacts For interviews, images or comments contact: John Roberts Marketing Manager Email: john@thejobsearchgroup.com
More infomation at WikipediaRail Industry – 500 Years of Transport
During the early 1820’s, as Britain experienced a massive trade-boom, it became apparent that the emerging technologies of mobile steam engines and iron rail construction could contribute enormously to the existing road, canal and coastal shipping networks. None of these methods of transport had required government-funding, so a group of private investors petitioned Parliament for the right to construct the lines they thought were commercially beneficial. Parliament agreed and the companies involved soon made substantial profits.
However, without a central governing body to oversee the regional developments, companies started trying to steal custom from each other by building new and more direct lines between major routes. The result was a waste of resources and expenditure and, consequently, lower returns for the companies involved. Larger and more ambitious companies decided to try and overturn the current regime, resulting in a series of amalgamations in the 1840’s. By 1870, the fifteen largest companies controlled 83% of gross traffic revenues and 80% of the paid-up capital.
By 1914, amalgamation had continued to such an extent that over 1,000 small railway companies were absorbed, under the watchful eye of the then President of the Board of Trade, Winston Churchill. From 1923, the remaining companies were grouped into ‘the big four’ – The Great Western Railway, The London and North Eastern Railway, The London, Midland and Scottish Railway and The Southern Railway – who ran the networks separately, until 1947, when the managements united to form one company. This company was nationalised under the British Transport Commission and remained that way until the 1990’s, when privatisation saw passenger operations franchised to 25 individual private sector operators.
Today’s rail network transports over 1 billion people per year, as well as freight and cargo, over 10, 300 miles of track that serve over 2,500 stations. With the changes in rail technology, new rail jobs have been created. Rail vacancies in 1847 would certainly have advertised for ‘navvies’ to lay the miles of track, but there were other railway jobs available. Railway engineering is a specific and skilled job that, when combined with the construction industry, saw the rise of civil engineering. The need for lawyers to sort out the contentious issues of land ownership, sale and conveyancing helped the emergence of accountancy as a separate profession.
Britain has the fastest-growing rail-network in Europe, but the post-privatisation years saw the railways taking on more than they could handle; many routes – especially those to London – were oversubscribed in off-peak times. The Department of Transport, under the leadership of the government, has ordered a restructure of the British railway infrastructure. This, in turn, will open up new job-opportunities for those already in railway jobs and for those wishing to join its ranks.
Today, the basic functions of a railway have evolved into fully-fledged rail careers, with a host of rail jobs available. Rail vacancies now advertise for people with a broad range of skills from commuters to computers, in fields such as construction, technical, customer-services and operations. With advances continually being made in the transport sector, the likelihood is that there will soon be even more new and exciting railway jobs to fill.
Rail Vacancies Search is a job site dedicated to the specific needs of candidates who work in the building services and Rail industry in the UK. We also provide recruiters with an online service that is effective in terms of cost and ease of use. Contacts For interviews, images or comments contact: John Roberts Marketing Manager Email: john@thejobsearchgroup.com
More infomation at WikipediaNuclear Industry Set For New Boost
Government ministers have given the go-ahead to a series of new nuclear power plants that are designed to replace those that currently provide 20% of the nation’s electricity. Westinghouse, one of the three vendors involved in setting up the new power-plants, has estimated that the UK’s economy could receive a boost worth around £30 million. In addition, there are likely to be thousands of new energy jobs created as part of the process. With soaring oil and gas prices, waning reserves of fossil fuel and pressure to tackle climate change, the decision to invest in nuclear power looks like a sensible one.
All but one of the UK’s nuclear power-plants is set to be phased out by the year 2023. The government is backing new designs that are expected to reduce carbon-emissions and utilize reserves effectively. However, the planning and construction of a power station takes around 10 years to complete, so the proposed stations will not help the UK to meet its targets for the Kyoto Agreement.
In the light of EDF’s decision to pull out of a deal with British Energy – worth £12.5 million – there is some concern that the reactors proposed will not be built in time to prevent a national energy crisis in the UK. Fears of a potential energy gap between 2016 and 2020, as power stations come off-line and coal reserves run dry, has prompted the powers behind the UK’s nuclear industry to court further investments; applications for new power plants are now more streamlined and easier to grant, according to new regulations.
The UK government’s hope is that another investment company, such as Westinghouse, will take advantage of this stance and begin a further crusade of new-build power plants across the country. This is due to the fact that, although British Energy has the operational expertise to run the new stations, it lacks the financial resources to actually fund their planning and construction. However it seems that investor and vendor interest from overseas is still very high.
As it stands, the UK’s nuclear industry still remains a demanding one. Applicants to fill vacancies for all kinds of nuclear jobs, from ground-floor engineers, gas jobs and research scientists to managerial staff are still being sought. As new technologies go to create better and more efficient power plants, a broader range of jobs and skills will be needed and created.
In addition to the range of jobs created to plan and build plants, more staff will be required away from these localities to deal with the transportation of fuel and waste.
While there may be an economic downturn at present, supplies of uranium are not depleted and this resource is not subject to the price-hikes that oil and gas are currently subject to. The future of the nuclear power industry may be fraught with challenges but, once they have been overcome, the sector looks set to provide the UK with a cheaper, more sustainable and environmentally-friendly form of energy than the fuels that we already use.
Energy Jobs Search is a job site dedicated to the specific needs of candidates who work in the utilities industry including gas jobs, energy jobs, water jobs, nuclear jobs plus many more. We also provide recruiters with an online service that is effective in terms of cost and ease of use. Contacts For interviews, images or comments contact: John Roberts Marketing Manager Email: john@thejobsearchgroup.com
More infomation at Wikipedia