Employment in the petroleum industry and related industries 2016

This report describes the employment in the petroleum sector, i.e. in establishments whose activity is directly related to oil and gas extraction and indirectly involved through the building and fitting of oil platforms and the operation of supply bases. Many of the businesses that supply goods and services to the petroleum sector have not been included as they are part of an establishment that is also a supplier to other sectors, such as seismic exploration, catering services, helicopter transport services and production of safety Equipment.

The last report of this kind had data until 2015. There has been a major change of data source between 2014 and 2015 which discussed in the report. The main conclusion is that most probably the change has not lead to a significant break in the series. This report has new data for 2015 and 2016. These years are main focus of the report supplemented by some time series starting in 2003.

The period 2014 – 2016 is marked by the fall in the price of oil from summer 2014 to January 2015 from which it has not yet recovered.

From an all time high of 83 779 employees in 2014 employment fell to 63 201 in 2015. Of these, 60 519 were resident in Norway and 2 683 were residents of other countries who only worked in Norway. The shift rotation and long periods of leave in the industry make working offshore conducive to long-distance commuting.

Between 2014 and 2015, employment was reduced by 10 858 and was further reduced by 9 768 employees from 2015 to 2016. The reduction of non-resident employees was 27 percent 2014 to 2015 and 35 percent from 2015 to 2016.

Although much of the activity in the petroleum industry and the petroleum-related industries is located offshore and in a few municipalities in Western Norway, almost all municipalities in Norway 98 percent have residents who are employed in the sector, albeit only a few in most cases. Sola and Stavanger municipalities have the highest ratio of employees working in the petroleum industries, with 15.7 and 13,6 per cent respectively. Stord municipality had the highest proportion of residents employed in petroleum-related industries, with 16,5 per cent.

A larger proportion of employees in the petroleum and petroleum-related industries have a higher education than in the private sector in general in Norway. These industries also have a lower share of female employees, although this has increased from 16.4 per cent in 2003 to 20.0 per cent in 2014. The increase largely consists of women with a higher education. A total of 60.7 per cent of female employees had a higher education compared to 36.5 per cent of their male counterparts.

A higher percentage of immigrants employed in the petroleum industries have a background from Western Europe compared to immigrants employed in petroleum-related industries and the rest of the private sector in Norway.