Despite record oil prices and increasing demand for crude, the oil and gas industry will be inhibited in reaching its full potential for value creation unless it can solve its dilemmas regarding human capital and resources. Closing the labor and skills gaps represents one of the industry’s major—if not the primary—factors in sustaining growth and maximizing profitability against a tide of rising capital and operating costs. Industry sources estimate that demand for hydrocarbons will continue to increase to approximately 100 million barrels per day by 2015. If one uses historical spending growth rates, normalized for production growth, to extrapolate future spending levels, these demand projections imply required annual finding and development capital expenditures in excess of $500 billion by 2015 (see Exhibit 1, page 4). Because finding and development requires high-cost labor throughout the value chain under the industry’s current model for deploying human capital, the sustained trend of capital expansion will require substantial increases in field operations and engineering expertise. Download the PDF whitepaper