OIL EXLORATION: THE NEW JOB SPOT

Dec 29, 2009

ARE you a graduate and ready to work in a rural setting? Maybe you are willing to go for further training and development in your career, but you have no job and the high fuel prices are burning up the little funds you would have used to survive in these

By Ibrahim Kasita

ARE you a graduate and ready to work in a rural setting? Maybe you are willing to go for further training and development in your career, but you have no job and the high fuel prices are burning up the little funds you would have used to survive in these hard economic times. Perhaps you should consider working for the oil and gas industry in the Albertine Graben in western Uganda.

Oil exploration is currently underway in the Albertine Graben and will soon be followed by production. The region has so many employment prospects, but the growing oil industry is in dire need of skilled personnel.

Oil and gas exploration activities are capital intensive and may generate direct employment for scientists, engineers and technicians. Since the industry is not labour intensive, the number of people directly employed on a sustainable basis is not big, but the industry provides significant employment opportunities through a chain of economic activities.

For instance, many businesses that are set up to provide goods and services to the oil sector will create new employment opportunities. The same applies to structures such as schools and hospitals.

Experts predict that there will be a high demand for skilled and semi-skilled labour in the oil and gas companies. The oil industry, therefore, seems the best destination for graduates rather than the traditional havens of medicine and law. Oil companies could appeal to fresh graduates with everything from flexible working hours to forward-looking environmental policies.

To address the labour shortage in the oil sector, the Government will start a diploma course in oil exploration and engineering at Kigumba Petroleum College in Masindi next financial year.

Tullow Uganda Operations Ltd, one of the firms exploring for oil and gas in the region, has called for graduate trainees in the sector.

Ernest Rubondo, the acting commissioner in the Petroleum Exploration and Production Department, says: “We shall carry out a study on the skills and development requirements of the industry. The sector is growing steadily and we shall need various professionals — engineers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, etc, — to develop.”

Rubondo says there is need for construction of pipelines, roads, rail lines for transportation of oil and storage facilities. “These projects, part of which may be situated in the countryside, will create a high demand for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour which should be recruited from the local communities,” he says.

The oil and gas sector will create new employment opportunities in the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, the National Oil Company and in the energy, environment, finance, lands and local government ministries. The Public Service Commission is charged with the responsibility of advertising the above jobs and recruitment of qualified staff.

Remember, the private sector will also advertise similar jobs.

So if you have a son or daughter joining university and has been doing sciences, encourage them to join the geophysics department. They will be sure of getting jobs by the time they graduate. The oil industry is still in its infancy with many employment prospects in the future. It is a pretty cool occupation for young people since they will be guaranteed to adventure, travel the world and get hefty pay cheques.

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