Sheth: Remote Working in Oil, Gas Will Create Jobs, Not Reduce Them

Remote working conditions enabled through the adoption of IIOT within oil and gas will create more jobs and attract more people to the industry, says Honeywell director.

Remote working conditions enabled through the adoption of IIOT [Industrial Internet of Things] within oil and gas will create more jobs and attract more people to the industry, instead of reducing the number of workers in the sector, according to Piyush Sheth, Honeywell Process Solutions marketing director for process measurement and control.

“There’s a lot less people and youngsters who are willing to come to this industry because they all want to go IT and some of the other areas,” said Sheth, speaking to Rigzone from the sidelines of the Honeywell Users Group EMEA conference in the Hague, Netherlands.

“However what this IIOT is doing is actually helping and giving an option to the new generation to work in some of the fancy locations and still apply all of their industry or automation knowledge, because ... they don’t need to work through those hazard area locations. So it’s actually helping in creating and attracting more jobs instead of having a risk of jobs,” he added.

Sheth also championed the safety aspects of shifting people to remote locations and suggested that training workers to use these stations wouldn’t be fundamentally difficult, but may require some time.

“The interfaces that they see ... are not necessarily going to be different,” Sheth said.

“It’s really a mindset change more than any other training, and like any other areas, mindset will take a while, but we see that the industry is really adopting very fast,” he added.

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