A drop in oil demand, combined with an oil supply shock, has created a ‘perfect storm’ for the energy industry and taken a dramatic toll on global oil prices in recent weeks. Since March 5th, the day before the OPEC meeting, WTI has fallen by approximately 45%. Oil demand has decreased due to lower economic activity, resulting from the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus around the world. Moreover, there is significant uncertainty surrounding the ultimate severity and duration of the virus’ impact on the economy. The outbreak of an oil-price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia was a surprise and has caused a major issue on the supply side of the equation. It’s difficult to fathom how or when this issue might be resolved, further adding to the uncertainty in planning for the future. These two simultaneous events are forcing energy companies to significantly reduce activity – the second time in the past five years – meaning the downsizing of company workforces.

Potentially a greater challenge for managers is planning for the future. Who knows if activity will rebound to recent activity levels or if there will be a permanent reduction in business levels? How many workers and what skills will be needed in the future? Do managers know what the competency of their existing workforces are, and can they convince their existing and prospective customers of those capabilities? These are questions managers should be asking of their human resource departments. But those questions should also be directed to the company’s engineering, research and technical managers.

The virus and oil supply shock will cause a restructuring of the energy industry. The energy business is not likely to return to ‘normal,’ assuming we know what normal is these days. Was the level of activity during the past several years reflective of normal business? We don’t know. What we do know is that staffing businesses in the future will be a challenge. Being able to demonstrate to your customers that your workforce is highly competent may prove crucial when competing for business moving forward. Managers should be preparing for a highly competitive market if they want their companies to succeed in the current environment.

For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed Kahuna Workforce Solutions Co-Founder and CEO, Jai Shah, about their efforts to transform competency management and workforce planning. Kahuna is a cloud-based platform that helps organizations get an objective view of their workforce’s capabilities, measure their talent supply against current and future demand, and maximize their return on training investments. For more information on Kahuna, please visit www.kahunaworkforce.com.

Background: Before co-founding Kahuna in 2014, Jai Shah spent numerous years implementing human resource software packages, such as SAP and Workday, into large organizations. While enterprise software solutions like SAP and Workday are great tools for human resource departments, companies in regulated industries, such as oil & gas, aerospace, and healthcare, found it difficult to track and document granular training and skills competency assurance. Today, Kahuna provides over 25 customers with a competency management platform that easily integrates into their current enterprise systems and enables them to better manage their workforce needs.

Use Cases: Kahuna is not just a regulatory compliance tool but rather a workforce development and planning resource. Kahuna integrates with existing enterprise solutions to pull pertinent data for the following….READ MORE

ESG and reducing carbon footprint have been recurring themes across the institutional investment community, which likely was a primary driver of Blackstone’s investment in NRStor. NRStor builds, owns and operates energy storage projects that deliver cost savings, environmental benefits and grid services. The company has over 200 MWh of operational, in-construction and contracted projects in the rapidly growing battery storage market.

The investor base includes more than 40 institutional investors, with approximately 80% of the capital coming from current Charlesbank limited partners. The fund will invest in lower middle-market, technology-focused companies with enterprise values ranging between $50 million and $300 million.

SAP and Accenture co-developed SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution for upstream oil and gas that helps customers to further increase visibility into operations and cash flow. The product claims to reduce complexity by using market standards while providing customers with a 360-degree view “from operations to the boardroom”. ConocoPhillips, Shell and other operators contributed to developing the solution.

Energy Technology Musings

Labor Force Management: Now and For the Future