The Manpower Shortage Worsens

Now for a short personal note. It’s been several days since I last updated, but there’s been a lot going on.

There have been a lot of stories in the past year about the manpower shortages in the oil and gas industry. I have decided to make the shortage worse by one, as I have announced my intention to leave the industry on March 1, 2008.

There were multiple factors behind the decision, none of which involved dissatisfaction with my employer or my job. I will get into specific details later of what I will be doing, but I will primarily be working with two different companies. Both companies are involved in sustainability issues. The first is called Accsys Technologies PLC, based in London. Essentially, they have a commercial chemical process that can convert fast-growing softwoods like pine into something with the durability of the best hardwoods. From an environmental perspective, this is very attractive, because it takes pressure off of tropical rainforests (a major source of hardwoods). This wood is being used to replace steel and aluminum in certain applications, which amounts to a major improvement in the carbon footprint (which I am still working to quantify).

The way I became involved with this company was that the new CEO, Finlay Morrison, was my former OXO business line manager when I was with Celanese. After he was named CEO, Finlay contacted me about a job. After telling him “No” several times, he told me that “No” wasn’t an answer he would accept. (Those Scots are a persistent bunch). So, I accepted the position of Engineering Director for the company. I will be relocating in the short term to Arnhem, in the Netherlands. I will also spend considerable time in China. My base location will be Dallas, which was attractive for the family because it is a short distance from extended family. (My kids have until now lived far from grandparents, cousins, etc.) I am not crazy about the travelling aspect, but the benefits far outweighed the inconveniences.

The second company I am involved with will have to remain unnamed for now. While some are doing press releases on how they are going to win the cellulosic ethanol race, this other company I am involved with has quietly developed a technology that I believe will trump them all. But, for now they prefer to continue developing business plans and remain out of the spotlight. (They are really a modest bunch). Hopefully sometime soon I can talk them into going public with what they are doing. And no, I won’t tell you who they are if you e-mail me. 🙂

I intend to continue writing about energy and sustainability issues. But by making this change, I also intend to make a more substantial contribution toward a more sustainable world.

30 thoughts on “The Manpower Shortage Worsens”

  1. RR

    Congrats!

    By the way, as a longtime struggling furniture maker (one of many trades in my life, none particularly remunerative) I look forward with keen interest to your hardening-the-pine process. Also, I am growing gobs of eucalyptus in Thailand. Euca. can actually be used for furniture and construction (contrary to popular opinion) but it has to be painstakingly cut, dried and stickered. But, as a fast-gorwing wood, it would make a great choice for interior woodwook, especially if it could be hardened…
    epoxy infusion?
    Great success to you in your new career!
    As for manpower shortages, money solves a lot of problems….
    the baby boom made employers lazy…now shortages are cropping up, and employers will actually have to treat employees as a valuable resource…which they are….

  2. Yep, congrats Robert. I hope it is what makes you happy.

    BTW, Benny, nice post! I live in CA, where we have lots of eucalyptus, but virtually none is used for anything, because it is so labor-intensive. I love it though, beautiful wood.

  3. Thanks Robert, you’ve already made a difference for those of us here, and it is great to see you’re taking it to another level. Congrats.

  4. Winelover-

    Until recently, I assumed euca. was useful only for burning. My family home of an acre in Altadena had lots of euca, and whenever a tree felled in a windstorm, the cut wood cracked badly.
    But, if you research, it turns out euca. was used in CA for woodworking in the early years. But, as stated, it had to be cut, then stickered with weights, for one year of air-drying. Additionally, there are 600 kinds of euca, and I don’t know which are the good ones for woodworking.
    The kind I grow in Thailand is for pulp.
    To keep this relevant to this page, there is talk of growing euca for fuel as well.
    But, if RR’s new process works, there are probably species of euca. that can be grown very quickly, and harvested as fine wood.
    I agree with RR’s sentiment, on the disaster of using hardwoods. Especially as many cheaper grades can be stained and varnished to great effect.
    Let us hope that euca and pine farms can answer woodworking needs for the future, the forests can go back to being forests.
    All hail RR’s new process. I look forward to building a euca home in Thailand someday.

  5. Good luck, and congratulations RR.

    And re the manpower issues, yes, manager are going to have work at being better at attracting and keeping employees. And working smarter.

  6. While some are doing press releases on how they are going to win the cellulosic ethanol race, this other company I am involved with has quietly developed a technology that I believe will trump them all.
    Well, you can tell us something, right? Gasification followed by a new innovative, highly efficient method to convert syngas into ethanol?

    You most serious competition has to be the beloved Vinod Khosla’s Range Fuels, right? As discussed before, fermenting syngas would make little sense.

  7. Congratulations on the new position – I am sorry that you are leaving your current employer though.

    It is getting increasingly more difficult to attract and recruit qualified enery workers. We are furiously hiring. People seem to jump companies much more easily than they did just a few years ago. I’m too close to retirement to think about a switch. But I expect that soon we will see more flexible working arrangements to accomodate the shortage and aging work force.

  11. Congratulations on the new position – I am sorry that you are leaving your current employer though.

    It was a very difficult decision; moreso because of the expat assignment. It is pretty rare that an expat leaves an assignment. I have been here now for 1 year and 1 day. My family has only been here for 7 months.

    I wasn’t looking for a job (I have never even circulated my resume since I joined the company), but have gotten a number of inquiries – generally via the blog. I have always said “No.” I told Finlay “No” as well, but that didn’t discourage him. Every barrier that I erected, he knocked down. He ultimately made an offer I couldn’t refuse, and when you have an offer you can’t refuse…..

  12. The 1 year and 1 day is important because if you had left earlier you would have had to pay back the relocation incentives.

    I would make sure with your previous employer (and your new one) that your income tax issues are covered. Ex-pats have their salaries scaled up and tax protected so they don’t end up getting double-taxed. UK tax years run 6 April to 5 April while the US runs on a calendar year. It will take a couple of years to sort out your tax situation. In the meantime you should get it in writing from your new employer that you won’t be responsible for any tax consequences resulting from your new job.

    If they won’t do that you can always come back!

    A home-base of Dallas is good since there is no state income tax there.

  13. Good luck with both ventures — and with anything else that comes along!

    Life is for living. It is worth taking some risks to do something that really rings your bells –especially these days, when technical people can find so many opportunities that there is not even much career risk involved in pursuing your interests.

    All the best, to you & your family!

  17. Congratulations on your career change, Robert. When others are so insistent that they -require- your services, they know you have the intangibles that separate the great managers from the competent. Just the fact that you make time (no on -has- time) to write, and write well, that just shows a hint of your skill.

    Good luck from me, but you’ll make your own I’m certain.

    Just an aside on the job issue, I saw on talk tv a claim that 50% of high school girls (USA) choose “assistant to a celebrity” as their preferred career choice.

    Every generation talks about how “the young are leading us into doom” but I fear the multi- multi- media is, this time, making it come true. No one is “fascinated” by science anymore in the critical volume needed, it’s all about “being known for being known, and then quoted.” Alas…

    One blogger mentioned SF Bay Area, and apropos eucalytus, Treasure Island is apparently planted with dozens of different examples of the varieties (70? 80?… a lot).

    As I understand it, a variety in Australia goes straight to the mill, then the lumberyard with no fuss. We don’t have that variety here. The variety Blue Gum was planted in Ellwood near Santa Barbara around 1902, brought over as seed. The idea was to make railroad ties, as the wood did not need creosote at all as its natural enemies, pests, remained in Australia.

    It was unsuitable as railroad ties, because it de-laminates fiercely after being cut into lengths.

    Pound for pound, my bet is on growing algae for diesel fuel. Greenfuels Technologies Inc already has the process down, now the scaling issues are being handled. Using it to absorb carbon dioxide and certain nitrogen compounds makes their process very appealing on several fronts!
    http://www.greenfuelonline.com/deployments.html

  18. Hi

    Good luck for your chemical wood process…

    Perhaps you know already but here in Finland a method of hardening softwood by heating has been in use for perhaps 15 years.

    That method has anyway the problem that the resulting wood isn’t as strong it was and does not bend well, and some other issues… so it wasn’t such a grand success after all.

    There are some special uses for the wood anyway, e.g. in saunas and wooden patios and similar places.

    It’ll be interesting to hear if this chemical version produces wood that could be used in boats – there is a demand for mahogany, teak etc and the natural varieties have been getting more and more expensive…

    Best
    Seppo

  19. How are the kids coping Robert? It must be hard on them all this moving about.

    We are going to great lengths to make it easy on them. In fact, what we are doing for them is going to make it really difficult for me. The wife and kids are headed back to Montana in a couple of days. That way, the kids get to finish out the school year in familiar surroundings, around their friends. On the downside, that leaves me alone again in Europe until summer, when we will all meet up in Dallas and get a house.

    This is a repeat of what we did last year (with me coming to Aberdeen first), and it was very tough. But, in the long run, the move is for the best as the kids really like to spend time on their grandparents’ farm in Oklahoma. Right now, they get to go there maybe once a year. In the future, they can go there any time we want. But short-term, it’s not going to be fun for me. No doubt it will be tougher on me than it will on the kids, who will have all of their friends to keep them busy.

  20. It’ll be interesting to hear if this chemical version produces wood that could be used in boats

    Actually, that was being discussed just a few days ago. Not sure what the overall consensus was, but the durability is definitely there for it to be used in boats.

  21. Pound for pound, my bet is on growing algae for diesel fuel.
    That much is logic.

    Greenfuels Technologies Inc already has the process down, now the scaling issues are being handled. Using it to absorb carbon dioxide and certain nitrogen compounds makes their process very appealing on several fronts!
    Not so fast! Do a couple of calculations on the area required to capture the CO2 coming from a decent sized coal power plant. Then calculate the cost of a GreenFuels system to accomplish the task. Probably costs more than the entire power plant. At best GreenFuels or similar systems will get used to remove NOx and other nasties from flue gas. There is too much CO2 for them to make a dent.

    The only algae system that is going to produce meaningful quantities in terms of fuel production is an open, marine based system, where you can use several square miles of ocean and dose it with ferric and other nutrients, as required. Sure it will have an environmental impact, but no solution is without an impact.

  22. Holy Crap! I did not see that one coming. The technology sounds like the sort of thing we need going forward, if any of the rain forest is to remain pristine. I am not an optimist about this. Sorry, Optimist.

  25. RR
    Congrats from me as well. You’ve contributed much to cyberspace over these past few years. I often wondered what resulted from your visit to the company with the promising cellulosic process which you told us about some time ago. Are you picking up an accent yet? Best wishes to you and your family. You are a busy man!
    signed,
    Kalpa

  26. We are going to great lengths to make it easy on them. In fact, what we are doing for them is going to make it really difficult for me. The wife and kids are headed back to Montana in a couple of days. That way, the kids get to finish out the school year in familiar surroundings, around their friends

    So did the kids not make friends in Scotland?

    The funny thing is, we obsess about this peak oil stuff but if our kids were unhappy we’d put aside all our principles and live the most unsustainable lifestyle if it made the kids happy. Well, I would anyway. Nothing kicks you in the guts emotionally like seeing your children unhappy.

    Anyway, good luck with it all.

  27. So did the kids not make friends in Scotland?

    They did. But they lived in Montana for 3 years, so they have some really close friends there. And with me being off to Holland, we figured it would be less disruptive if they are back in completely familiar surroundings.

    Besides that, when I leave the company, my UK work permit is no longer valid. So, it was either move them to the U.S., or to Holland for 3 months. We decided it was best to put them in the place that wouldn’t be a difficult adjustment.

    Cheers, Robert

  28. So you’re soaking the pine in some sort of Viagra solution?

    Something like that. 🙂

    The key point is that there is no toxic residue of any kind left on the wood. This makes it quite a bit different from pressure-treated wood. Wood naturally has acetyl molecules, but this process knocks off a lot of the hydroxyl molecules and replaces them with acetyls. That is what causes the change in properties.

  29. Congratulations Robert – As your page displayed, I wondered when you would make this move and now you have.

  30. Robert

    Congratulations on the new job.

    Leaving the mother ship of the big company is always a shock to the system. But also tremendously liberating.

    Having the children grow up around the extended family is a very special thing for all of them, for which, when they are my age (mid 40s) they will very much thank you.

    I hope we can hook up via LinkedIn at some point if not face to face.

    Good luck on all your ventures.

    Valuethinker.

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