Oil and gas labour challenges: Get new oilfield operators productive faster, and do it safely

Oil and gas labour challenges: Get new oilfield operators productive faster, and do it safely®

It’s no secret we’re facing an ongoing labour shortage in the oilfield. 

As oil and gas producers hire more new and inexperienced operators to manage their assets – how can we equip them to be as productive and safe as quickly as possible? 

The frontline oil and gas labour shortage isn’t going away

Oil and gas companies are facing a wave of retirements that is already deepening the shortage of people to do operations work. Over the next three years, more than 60% of oil and gas job openings will be due to age-related attrition. Right now there are hundreds of open field operation jobs in Alberta.

Technology to guide new oilfield operators is key to helping teams to perform

More pressure on oilfield operators to cover more assets is leading to increased errors resulting in downtime and an uptick in safety incidents.  When inexperienced oilfield operators are overloaded, the risks can be deadly.

EZ Ops oilfield software in the hands of new hires can reduce incident risk and downtime by ensuring field teams are taking the right action from day one. 

Newly hired operators can start and use EZ Ops to contribute as though they have years of experience right away. And when new operators get task guidance and monitoring tools on a tablet, they become 2.7x more efficient in the field within their first 3 months on the job. Even an operator who’s been in the job for years can use EZ Ops to get 2x more efficient.

How can new oilfield operators hit the ground running?

Take EZ Ops automated daily schedule and dynamic routing capabilities, for example.

Field operators simply start a shift by entering their location, where they need to end the day and how many hours they’re working. EZ Ops analyzes the data and guides the operator’s activity and driving route for the day. Want to prioritize ESG? Pick the fuel-efficient route.

The dynamic route and schedule take into account internal data like SCADA data, upcoming inspection dates, plus many external factors like temperature and commodity prices to identify which asset maintenance will have the greatest production impact, with responsible compliance.

The average field operator drives about 22,000 km in a year. With dynamic routing that’s optimized for max fuel efficiency, you can drop that drive time by 68%, reducing carbon impact and boosting safety.

EZ Ops uses machine learning and artificial intelligence in our oilfield management software

Build team capacity – learn about technology to guide oilfield operators to take the right action

The pressure to keep production up, maintain compliance and safety is sticking around, and so is the skilled labour shortage. It’s time to equip oil and gas operations teams with the right technology to take the guesswork out of what’s today’s right schedule and where do I start?

See how EZ Ops can help you ramp up new and inexperienced oilfield operators faster, and safely. Take the first step – book a demo.

Patrick Herren picture

About Patrick Herren, Director of Customer Experience

Pat’s been operating oil and gas assets for the past decade and knows firsthand the demands of the job working in the oil patch as a former production operator.

Pat leads our on-boarding and training team, providing responsive helpful service that has earned EZ Ops a 100% adoption track record in the field.