Accelerating the build up of experience with a view to the imminent big crew change

This paper describes a number of features of the E&P sector that impact on the staff qualities and attitudes required to optimally run E&P projects. The first is that the E&P sector, when compared to other sectors in the industry, has to face relatively high levels of uncertainty in its project outcomes. This is due mainly to data sparsity, technological depth, multi disciplinary breadth and business process complexity. Second, in order to survive in the international arena, E&P companies in essence compete on their ability to attract, develop and retain scarce human talent. Managing the above uncertainties puts exceptional demands on employee skills and internal business processes. It is argued that the gap between the required and available skills pool is widening and that, consequently, the sector is increasingly becoming a human talent constrained industry. A third feature therefore is that relatively more resources should be invested in continuing education to turn experience into deeper insight for improved performance. We postulate that with a properly trained workforce the executive mandates given to staff should be made more flexible at their local (disciplinary, business-unit, asset etc.) level, but more stringent at the global (overall corporate value chain, context) level. When relating the above considerations to the imminent "big crew change", one should grasp this perspective as an opportunity to revisit the E&P sector's traditional approach to education. This paper describes the results of three years experience with a new executive training program for mid- career E&P professionals. It is designed to achieve, within twelve months, a quantum leap in their integration and abstraction skills, enabling them to solve efficiently complex managerial problems much earlier than traditional training programs. The course focuses on E&P decision-making under uncertainty using a comprehensive definition of added value. Students learn to integrate the pertinent information, and switch between abstraction and integration levels as a function of the decision to be made. Mastering this skill is normally achieved after many years of industry experience. The course could be labeled 'the MBA for E&P professionals', however with both feet firmly on technical ground. The results are remarkable. Graduates are ready to assume responsibility as E&P asset and portfolio manager.