Oil Professionals Rate Supermajors As Best

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Oil Professionals Rate Supermajors As Best

A study of oil and gas workforce perceptions since the start of the global downturn has revealed which operators and service companies are rated highest by oil and gas professionals – based on key issues including values, performance and pay rates.

Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Halliburton make up the top five in the wide-ranging Ideal Employer Survey 2016, undertaken by Rigzone, which attracted responses from 8,400 people in more than 100 countries.

More than 3,000 oil and gas industry companies were named in the survey and despite the challenges faced by the sector through the depression in the oil price, no companies from other industries were ranked in the top 30.

The research was carried out between July and September 2016, ranking companies based on 19 questions focussed on their qualities and rating their ideal employers.

Commitment to health and safety is the single most important attribute (securing 90%) for people in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors worldwide. Competitive salary, interesting and challenging work, and corporate integrity (all 88%) were equal second, with workplace culture, and training and development programmes (87%) joint third.

Regionally, only respondents in North America and Europe chose factors other than safety as their top priority. Salary, and ‘manages business with integrity’ were joint top for North America, and the focus was on ‘interesting/challenging work’ for Europe.

Bucking the global trend, respondents in the UK and Africa had different number one ideal employers compared to the other regional breakdowns. The UK cited BP as their top ideal employer, followed by Shell, Chevron, Maersk and ExxonMobil. In Africa, Chevron came out on top, followed by ExxonMobil and then Shell.

In the Middle East, Saudi Aramco was second, behind Shell, with Schlumberger in third, Halliburton fourth and BP fifth. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) ranked sixth and the Kuwait National Petroleum Company was listed as fourteenth.

Respondents in APAC ranked Shell number one, with Chevron second, ExxonMobil third, with PETRONAS further down the list at number eight.

Moving Abroad Checklist

Initial Considerations

Will your partner be travelling with you?

If so, what will they be giving up in your present home and will they be able to continue with their career in your new home? You will need to check whether a separate visa is required for your partner to work or if your visa gives that right. If they are unable to work you will need to decide on the effect on your finances and what alternatives are available to give a fulfilling life (home business, training, voluntary work).

Are you taking family with you?

Moving with family raises many exciting opportunities, but also can create challenges. The HSBC Expat Explorer survey indicates that expat kids can take six months to settle in to their new country (see article). Getting young or even older children to prepare to move and leave their friends and family behind can be a challenge and should be thought through.

The options for education is another area that needs to be thought through.

Moving your child to a new country with a different education system can be a great opportunity to broaden their experience, but if they are close to key exams the timing can make this inadvisable. If you do take your family with you, it is important to decide between joining the local school system or choosing an international school.

Where will you be living?

Whether you will be living in a house or apartment, furnished or unfurnished, these decisions will affect what you need to take with you. The time you are planning to live overseas will also affect whether you should leave your property at home empty, rent it out or sell it. See the article Sell, Store or Ship.