The great knowledge transfer: securing the future of conventional energy’s workforce

The average age of the global oil & gas workforce currently sits around 56, with 45% of workers aged over 50 and just 12% under 30 – revealing a ‘missing middle’ (professionals aged between 35 and 50) skills gap that urgently needs to be addressed by the industry before the estimated 50% of tenured workers set to retire within five to seven years becomes reality.

This imbalance is further tipped by the workforce exodus triggered by the 2019 – 2020 oil price crash, when an estimated 10.5% of the global oil & gas workforce left the industry in a single year. The talent market has never fully recovered, with 68% of employers continuing to experience significant recruitment challenges due to resource constraints, uncompetitive salaries and a shortage of qualified candidates.

Replacing retiring workers is only half the challenge. Attracting new talent into the industry has become increasingly difficult, with many younger professionals opting for careers that align with their personal values or choosing emerging sectors (such as renewable energy) that are perceived to offer greater innovation, purpose and long-term growth.

Losing a lifetime of on-the-job knowledge is going to cost operators far more than the price of filling an empty seat. The solution is not to simply find talent faster – it is going to require a structured approach to capturing and embedding the departing workforce’s amassed knowledge before it leaves the building. A shrinking labour pool can be rebuilt through hiring, but lost institutional memory cannot be rehired at any price.

Tacit knowledge (the field-specific expertise that lives in a specialist's head rather than in any manual) is an instinct built over decades on site. It is the hardest form of intelligence to capture and also the most dangerous to lose.

Research from Hong Kong Polytechnic University on knowledge retention in oil & gas identifies five critical areas at risk:

• Specialised technical knowledge: reservoir behaviour, plant-specific engineering and well integrity
• Contextual knowledge: the historical reasons behind past operational decisions
• Knowledge of failures: a working record of past incidents so they are not repeated
• Relationship knowledge: deep ties with suppliers, regulators and local communities
• Management and process knowledge: the informal workarounds that keep daily operations running

Much of this knowledge is built through years of hands-on experience, judgement and problem-solving, which can only be effectively transferred from one person to another. Reactive approaches such as exit interviews or hurried end-of-tenure documentation are rarely sufficient as primary knowledge transfer mechanisms. Without structured, ongoing succession planning, critical insights can be lost or misinterpreted, increasing operational risk.

The first step is locating vulnerabilities. Operators should map the current workforce by age bracket and flag any role where more than 30% of incumbents sit within five years of retirement. Priority should belong to upstream and site-based technical roles, which carry the highest operational risk and are historically the hardest to fill.

During the audit, a strict classification framework should separate easily documented tasks from the technical, contextual and relationship knowledge that is only retained by experienced workers. Without this map, resourcing decisions are guesswork – a gamble that could be costly if incorrect.

Retention planning cannot wait for the retirement party. Operators should partner with a specialist recruiter to map and engage retiring professionals before they exit the business. Structured, part-time contractor arrangements keep vital skills in-house while giving retirees the lifestyle they want.

A proven phased-retirement model runs at 50% of normal hours, with at least 20% of that time dedicated to mentoring and knowledge handover. Positioned well, these become respected, flexible roles that shape the next generation of leaders and convert a looming loss into a managed transfer.

For operators that have already lost part of their retiring cohort, the focus shifts to targeted acquisition. The route forward is sourcing experienced professionals aged 40 to 55 from adjacent heavy industries such as mining, defence, maritime and utilities, then pairing them with embedded, experienced oil & gas specialists to accelerate onboarding.

This cross-industry approach has already been proven successful: a previous Energy Outlook Report by Brunel found that 64.7% of employers were expanding training programmes, while 36.2% were broadening recruitment to target transferable skills from other sectors. Pairing transfers context at speed, so a capable worker is developed into a productive asset in months rather than years.

Knowledge handover must be outcomes-based rather than open-ended. Specifically, measurable milestones should be embedded into project scopes, transition schedules and operational workflows from day one. The table below sets out a practical milestone framework:

Milestones convert goodwill into auditable progress, which means the value of a handover engagement is visible on the balance sheet rather than assumed.

Alongside person-to-person knowledge transfer, experienced professionals should document their expertise using digital twins, AI-powered knowledge repositories and simulation-based training. These technologies convert decades of operational experience into permanent organisational assets that can support onboarding, training and decision-making long after an employee has retired.

Although digital tools cannot replace the value of direct mentoring, they significantly reduce the risk of critical knowledge being lost. As conventional energy companies continue investing in AI and digital twins to improve asset performance and operational resilience, embedding workforce knowledge into these platforms represents one of the most effective ways to future-proof organisational capability.

Failing to build clear knowledge retention pathways will alienate the incoming talent needed to close the skills gap. Industry data shows that 85% of global oil & gas employees report that a company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance influences whether they stay or leave. Operators that neglect social-governance responsibilities such as sustainable workforce planning and cross-generational mentoring signal a lack of long-term stability, which makes attracting and retaining the next generation of professionals steadily harder. Reputation, once eroded, becomes its own recruitment penalty.

For more than 25 years, Brunel has partnered with Australia's oil & gas industry, helping operators secure the skilled professionals they need while strengthening workforce planning, succession strategies and knowledge continuity. Backed by long-standing relationships with active industry specialists and highly experienced retirees, we connect organisations with the expertise required to maintain operational capability today while preserving critical knowledge and developing the workforce of tomorrow.

Successfully navigating the demographic cliff is not about replacing people – it’s about preserving capability. Brunel works closely with operators to identify knowledge-transfer risks, develop proactive workforce strategies and connect organisations with experienced professionals through our extensive local, global and cross-industry talent communities. Backed by data-driven market intelligence, we help clients build resilient workforces, protect decades of institutional knowledge and turn demographic change into a strategic advantage.

The tide is already in motion. The knowledge vacuum forming today will shape the safety, productivity and global competitiveness of Australian operations for the next decade. As collective technical expertise walks off job sites, the market leaders will be those that treat knowledge retention as a board-level workforce strategy rather than an administrative afterthought.

Structured contractor engagements are among the most practical, flexible and cost-effective tools available to counter the cliff. The framework only works if the pipeline is built before primary specialists exit the business – because once legacy expertise leaves the asset, retrieving it becomes a reactive, premium-rate challenge. Proactive planning is the only way to ensure the next generation inherits the foundational insight needed to run safe, efficient and resilient operations.