While the timeline for the transition is unclear, a number of jobs in the oil and gas sector that are currently being done by humans will, perhaps sooner than we think, pass to robots, according to the United States-based data and analytics-based company Global Data.
While Global Data is providing neither a timeline for the labour-displacing development, nor the likely extent to which robots will replace humans in the sector, or its impact, the company is predicting that the industry will arrive at a junction where the phenomenon will become “the oil and gas industry’s growth engine,” a circumstance which strongly suggests that the substitution of humans with robotized devices, will be an integral part of the operating strategy of at least some of the major oil companies, going forward. The issue is likely to be of some concern to oil-producing countries, particularly in developing countries, where the emergence of oil and gas sectors are regarded as the opening of doors on potentially lucrative jobs, even some that are relatively far down the scale of the emoluments food chain.