The impending war between the U.S. and Iraq isn’t discouraging oil-industry employees from working in the Middle East and other overseas trouble spots, say industry insiders.
Karen Coe, president of Coe and Company International, a Calgary-based executive recruiting firm, says there is a boom in short-term contract hirings as oil companies rethink their long-term business plans in the Middle East and other trouble spots, and assign personnel elsewhere.
“Most of the people who have gone over and want to come back have not been there a long time,” said Coe. “They’re taking over people that have, in many cases, done this for a while. In some cases, it’s a lifestyle.”
James Cummings, 29, decided he didn’t like the lifestyle after spending a year as a lawyer with Kuwait’s foreign oil company. Fearing for the safety of his wife and infant son after some U.S. marines were shot, he brought his family home to Calgary.
“If not for the stuff going on with Iraq, I would have stayed,” said Cummings, now a consultant.
“You gain so much more in life experience and career experience than you would here. Even if you get chased home as I did, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
His father, Jim Cummings, also a Calgary-based lawyer who has worked extensively in Iraq and sends lawyers to Kuwait and Indonesia, said there is a “huge pull” for young men and women to go overseas and better their condition.
“Whether you be geophysicist, engineer, lawyer, if you want to be associated with the petroleum industry, you really have little choice but to go overseas as our Western Basin declines,” said the elder Cummings.
A drop in exploration, the high cost of operating an oil company in Canada and this country’s tax regime are pushing employees to other countries, he said.
“Take a young man who has five or six years of energy experience,” said Cummings. “He can go over to Kuwait. It’s tax-free. If he works there for five or six years, he’s set up for life . . . Canada is quickly dropping into Third World status, if you look at the value of the income that you make and the cost of living, your income after expenses. You can go abroad and you’re paid in U.S. dollars – real dollars – and you can save an awful lot of money.”
Cummings predicted Albertans and other Canadians will play a large role in rebuilding Iraq if the U.S. or UN ousts Saddam Hussein.
With Iraq holding 17 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, said Cummings, the first priority after a new government is installed will be to get the oil flowing, rebuild and modernize oilfields with new equipment and technologies, and get untapped oil to market.
“I would dare say the Haliburtons, the Schlumbergers, the EnCanas, the Talismans . . . will all be investing very heavily in Iraq as part of the world efforts to bring the country into the new age, so to speak,” said Cummings, a partner with Calgary-based International Energy Counsel, who visited Iraq last year. “So I would think in the next six months there would be literally thousands of Canadians working in Iraq to help rebuild the country.”
In the meantime, most energy personnel who are already in the Middle East appear willing to stay, even in high-risk Yemen, which has been the scene of bombings, kidnappings and killings.
Bob Kells, director of security for Calgary-based Nexen Inc., which has operations in Yemen, said some employees have returned because of security or family concerns, such as a sick parent or child.
“But I don’t see that there’s a great change in the number of people that want to not rotate because of security, or the fears of flying, or just working in the Middle East,” said Kells.
Dave Parr, manager of corporate security for BP Canada Energy Co. and a member of an informal group known as the National Energy Security Professionals, said he’s not aware of any difficulties filling positions in the Middle East.
“(Experienced employees) know the people, they know the culture, they feel comfortable going over there,” said Parr, whose company has operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Parr said companies appear more sympathetic than they were in the past to employees who want to transfer home.
“(A transfer request) will be viewed with more respect because of the concern in the current state of the world,” said Parr. “In times of peace, if people wanted to be transferred back, I’m sure they would have been allowed to transfer back. But it may have affected their careers.”
Alberta companies with operations in the Middle East include Petro-Canada, EnCana and Talisman. Alan Boras, a spokesman for Calgary-based EnCana, which has limited activities in the Middle East, said his company hires mostly nationals rather than ex-pats. “We have so few people there, I don’t think (filling positions is) a concern,” he said.
Petro-Canada spokeswoman Michelle Harries said her company also hires mostly nationals, but the company is monitoring the Middle East situation closely. She noted that, following the Gulf War, Petro-Canada did not change its operations.
So, if there is a war in Iraq, “We’re expecting business as usual.”
