Oil Industry needs software?

CareerJournal | Energy & Utilities — Salary Data and Hiring Trends

Saddled with an aging workforce and lacking enough young engineers to fill the vacancies, the oil and gas industry faces a talent crunch even as a hungry energy market drives an expansion that’s seen continuing for the next few years.

But software executives, interested in tapping potential clients in the oil industry, say information technology could help bridge that generational gap by enabling outsourcing and better information management. Others, however, say those tools alone aren’t enough to completely overcome the challenge.

“How do you capture important skills so they can be passed to tomorrow’s engineers? There’s great potential for software to get past that bridge,” said Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Chief Financial Officer Steven Ballmer, at a Houston energy conference Wednesday.

An interesting piece on the situation in the oil industry. Right now I don’t know much about natural resources industries, but I do know that with China becoming an economic powerhouse, our insatiable demand for oil, and that we all share the same planet Earth, that this field will be interesting in the future.

At least from an investment point of view.

Unfortunately, this article does cite Steve Ballmer as the CFO of Microsoft - a pretty silly mistake. Here’s an eye popping fact though:

Fifty percent of the oil industry workforce is eligible to retire in five years

Wow.