PORTLAND
MARKET
REPORT
April update
Since 2010, Portland Fuel has recruited 1-2
graduates every year. Back in the good old
days, when joining an oil company was an
attractive option, the ratio of applicants to
jobs available was extremely high. In 2013
for example, Portland received an incredible
224 applications for 1 job advert. This was too
much of course for our in-house recruitment
team, so it was decided to arbitrarily throw half
the applications in the bin – working on the
basis that we wouldn’t want to recruit unlucky
people...
This year for the same graduate position
– but with much wider responsibilities and
the option of a 6-month posting in Germany
– our company received a grand total of 42
applications! Such is the current anti-fossil
fuel sentiment, that we received a fi fth of
the number of applications versus 6 years
ago. Youngsters today it seems, would rather
declare that they have the bubonic plague,
than consider joining an oil company and this
represents a major shift in graduate behaviour.
If you go further back in time (when
this writer was applying for graduate jobs),
it didn’t actually get much better than the
oil industry, offering as it did good salaries,
international opportunities and clear career
progression. Indeed, returning to your home
town and telling people that you were “getting
into oil” received both approving and envious
comments (not to mention the occasional bit
of female interest!). Nowadays one imagines,
shock and mortifi cation would be the more
likely reactions from your contemporaries and
the only interest shown, would be via a placard!
Clearly the diffi culties faced by our small
company in recruiting talented young people
is of no signifi cance per se to the well-being of
the oil industry. But consider the impact on the
bigger companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon,
who literally recruit hundreds of graduates per
year. Clearly no big oil company is going to
admit to dwindling graduate interest, but if
Portland’s experiences are anything to go by,
then the number of applications to “Big Oil”
must be massively down. Reduced application
numbers must mean fewer quality candidates
“YOUNGSTERS TODAY IT SEEMS,
WOULD RATHER DECLARE
THAT THEY HAVE THE BUBONIC
PLAGUE, THAN CONSIDER
JOINING AN OIL COMPANY ”
and less young blood coming up through the
ranks. Follow that one to its logical conclusion
and the sector could be on the road to
extinction.
“IF WE DO HAVE AN
ENERGY CRISIS AND
A CLIMATE CHANGE
EMERGENCY, THEN IT IS
UNLIKELY TO BE SOLVED
BY ANOTHER DIGITAL
MARKETING AGENCY IN
LONDON”
All of this might be music to the ears of
environmentalists. What better evidence could
there be of an industry in its death throes,
than the fact that no young people want to
work there? But is that really the right thing to
wish for? If we do have an energy crisis and a
climate change emergency, then it is unlikely
to be solved by another Digital Marketing
Agency in London. Nor are the challenges of
supplying 8.5bn people with sustainable and
affordable energy, best explained by slogans
(“System Change not Climate Change”) or 280
characters on social media.
The reality is that the only people who
will solve the energy crisis are the people that
work at the centre of it and who critically,
have an understanding of the scale of global
energy consumption. People who are unaware
that just one single container ship sailing from
Rotterdam to Singapore, will consume 8m litres
of fuel on one voyage are far more likely to
think that the transition to a low carbon future
(that also maintains economic prosperity)
is both easy-peasy and should be achieved
overnight!
For their part however, the oil companies
must also approach things differently. It is all
very well telling people that oil consumption
will continue to grow for another 20 years,
but consumers, investors and now potential
employees are beginning to take a rather
different view. Just like the tobacco companies
before them, big oil corporations are having
to face up to the harsh reality that they push
a fundamentally unpopular product. Changes
therefore are inevitable and all the signs are
that they are coming in rapid fashion. In
the last 18 months alone, Shell has sold off
almost its entire oil sands portfolio, as well as
buying 100% renewable energy companies
(such as First Utility in the UK). In the same
period, both BP and Total have made bets
on an electric future – BP via their purchase
of Chargemaster (Britain’s largest electric
car charging network) and Total via a $1bn
purchase of Saft Groupe (one of the world’s
leading battery manufacturers). Even the so-
called environmental bad boys ExxonMobil,
have spent $500m on developing fuel from
algae (rather than from crude oil).
“THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO
WILL SOLVE THE ENERGY
CRISIS ARE THE PEOPLE
THAT WORK AT THE
CENTRE OF IT”
What we are witnessing then is a
fundamental reshaping of the industry, which
in turn surely means a rebranding of the sector.
By transforming themselves from “Oil Majors”
into “Energy Majors”, the big oil companies will
be able to more carefully select their energy
sources and thus take into account both
practical and social pressures. No doubt the
company strategists will be hoping that such a
move will pacify consumers, appease investors
and lure young people back to begin their
careers in oil energy.
For more pricing
information, see
page 22
Portland Fuel Price Protection
www.portland-fuel-price-protection.com
Fuel Oil News | April 2019 11