Oil discovery in the South-East heralds “boom” for recruiters

The discovery of a potential £300bn worth of oil near Gatwick Airport in South-East England provides a “tremendous opportunity” for recruiters, particularly in light of falling oil prices and sector job cuts.
Mon, 13 Apr 2015The discovery of a potential £300bn worth of oil near Gatwick Airport in South-East England provides a “tremendous opportunity” for recruiters, particularly in light of falling oil prices and sector job cuts.

Even though only a small amount of the oil may be able to be extracted, the find could generate thousands of jobs.

David Spencer-Percival, chief executive of international energy recruiter Spencer Ogden, told Recruiter it would be a “real boom” for both the local and the UK economy.

“Naturally, this is also a tremendous opportunity for recruiters. The North Sea crisis has caused an increase in candidates and a reversal of the old energy skills shortage, and these new vacancies can provide us with even more opportunities to place this talent.”

Mike Bower, director and head of technical services at Glasgow-based Search Consultancy, agreed.

He told Recruiter there was “definitely plenty of talent out there to meet demand should a high number of jobs become available on the back on the discovery”.

He continued: “At the moment, the majority of CVs the technical services team receives are from people looking to be re-employed within the sector. Although the recent discovery won’t necessarily address immediate need in terms of recruitment in the oil & gas industry, it will hopefully provide opportunities in the long term.”

Oil & gas staffing specialists Oil Consultants’ chief executive Helen Smith told Recruiter while it would be some time before approval to proceed is granted and operations commence, “the new discovery will contribute significantly to both the economy and jobs market, replacing some of those that have been lost as a result of the significant fall in the oil price in other areas of the UK”.

Exploration company UK Oil & Gas Investments discovered the potential oil.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the company announced its analysis suggested up to 158m barrels of oil per square mile could be lying under the Surrey countryside.

It seems the news has not been welcomed by all though. On Saturday [11 April], the BBC reported campaigners were gearing up to fight oil extraction.

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