The future of the energy industry
Over the following decades, our energy system won't just change - it will expand.
We will spend two or three times more on energy transition than we currently spend on the global oil and gas industry.
And as our energy transition activity intensifies, we'll need to increase our workforce to ensure we meet our interim targets and deliver net zero.
Upskilling our existing workforce
Around 90% of the UK's oil and gas workforce has medium to high transferability to new energy sectors such as wind, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage.
Workers with medium transferability need less than ten weeks of transition training to move to roles in our developing energy sectors.
Through upskilling, today's fossil fuel workforce will be ready for the new energy system of tomorrow.
New roles for a new system
Upskilling will prepare the existing oil and gas workforce for similar roles in our new energy system - but what about the jobs we haven't invented yet?
The technological innovation required to establish our net zero future means we need people who can deal with complex energy systems.
We must establish the energy integration required to link our cars, devices, and homes, ensuring all the energy flows work and are optimised continuously. And we will also need to process the data generated as our physical world connects.
We’ll need data brokers, energy system architects, data ethics specialists, and AI and machine learning experts. And we must also explore how we can apply gaming technology to the energy industry.
Pathways to the future
By upskilling our existing workforce and creating new opportunities to join our journey to net zero, the energy transition presents an exciting future for our industry.
Key points
- We will spend two or three times more on energy transition than we currently spend on the global oil and gas industry.
- Around 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce has medium to high transferability to other energy sectors such as wind, hydrogen or CCUS
- Medium transferability means up to 10 weeks of transition training.
- Alongside upskilling our current workforce, the energy transition will create many new jobs dealing with:
- More complex energy systems, as everything connects, integrates, and continuously optimises.
- Increased and more rapid technological innovation
- More integrated policy and regulation to protect the public
- The careful, confidential management of energy data
- Developing our energy literacy