Energy Industry: Industry Facts
- The Oil & Gas Industry offers global travelling opportunities. You could work in America, Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia.
- The UK around 2 million barrels of oil & gas are produced every day.
- Oil has many different uses apart from the obvious petrol and diesel. Products we use every day that come from oil include; shampoo, make- up, washing powder, paint, ink and plastic.
- In a process that takes millions of years; oil and gas reservoirs are formed from the remains of marine and plant life that are exposed to high pressure and heat from the earth's core.
- Oil & Gas were discovered in the North Sea during the late 1960s. Since then the UK Oil & Gas Industry has developed into one of the most exciting, challenging and technologically advanced working environments in the world.
- People employed in the UK Oil & Gas Industry are considered to be among the most inventive, resilient and forward-thinking workers in the world.
- A job in the Oil & Gas Industry can based onshore in an office or factory; or offshore on an oil rig or vessel.
- Employees can work normal 9am-5pm hours on shore. Or they can work a rotation offshore - for example 2weeks at home and 2 weeks on an offshore rig.
- Employees can be there own boss by being self-employed. Or they can work as a member of staff for a company.
- It is estimated that approximately 300,000 people in the UK are employed directly and indirectly in over 6,000 companies by the oil industry. About 30,000 of these are employed by oil companies in offshore jobs.
- The World´s biggest producers of gas are: USA, Russian Federation, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Algeria, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Iran & Norway.
- It was only 40 years ago when the industry was first developed in the East of England when gas was brought ashore in the region.
- Over the next 10-15 years, the UK will be increasingly reliant on oil and gas to meet its primary energy needs.
- The UK's oil and gas needs will rise from 74 percent as a primary energy source to 85 percent in 2020.
- The offshore oil and gas sector is the largest single industrial investor in the UK economy with London and the East of England representing 25% of total employment within the sector.
- Almost all of the hydrocarbon fields in the southern part of the North Sea are gasfields.
- The Oil & Gas industry provides 20 000 jobs in the East of England.
- The oil and gas industry provides an export of £4 billion per year.
- Between 50 and 100 people live on a typical installation in the Southern North Sea. Work is usually in continuous shifts of 12 hours on, 12 hours off for two weeks, followed by a two to three-week rest period.
- There are 6,500 offshore oil and gas production installations worldwide. Four hundred of these are off the coast of the UK.
- The offshore industry produces 80% of the UK’s primary energy.
