Elizabeth A.E. Johnson, Chevron Technical Center
The shift to lower carbon intensity in the energy industry creates opportunities and challenges for petrotechnical professionals. During this critical transition, the industry needs talent who create value in traditional oil and gas business as well as growing new energy business lines. Subsurface skills – characterizing rocks, managing reservoirs, and monitoring containment – are paramount to this transition. As it so happens, most core subsurface competencies are directly relevant to underground carbon storage. There will also be a need for specialty technical expertise to address the unique technical and business requirements of carbon storage projects, as well as new low carbon energy sources, such as novel geothermal. At the industry level, we must build a diverse, inclusive talent pipeline with the capability to learn and adapt to the challenges of building the sustainable energy ecosystem. For petrotechnical professionals, intentional career development will include: 1) leveraging foundational skills such as development geology, reservoir engineering, and facilities engineering, 2) growth of specialty technical skills in new areas such as carbon capture and storage, 3) enhancing digital fluency, as well as 4) increasing cross-functional business acumen for optimizing the carbon value chain. Integrated talent management frameworks, robust competency libraries, continuous learning, and agility will enable strategic talent development for the energy transition and a lower carbon future.