Done right, the Open Talent Model can accelerate the breakthrough innovation companies need to meet modern global energy challenges.

The Open Talent Model (OTM)—also known as on-demand work, freelancing, or contracting—is a way of working where people provide services to companies in exchange for payment but are not employees of those companies. Highly trained, experienced professionals can work when and where they want, on a project-by-project basis, remotely, on site, or a hybrid combination.

Challenges

Many readers may be saying to themselves, “Yes, but how can it work for oil and gas exploration and development with challenges like these?”

• Globally, the energy landscape has become more complex and requires new models, skills, and tools, but the bandwidth and resources to source, implement, and onboard new tools and models is limited. From the start, oil and gas has been a cyclical industry. However, the current energy transition—embracing renewable sources (such as wind and solar) and goals of lower carbon emissions, coupled with ever increasing demand for power from a developing world—means an ever more precarious state. Innovation is still needed and expected, yet budgets are tighter, and career professionals with domain expertise, including seasoned workers (many of whom don’t want to completely retire), are looking for more flexible ways to work.
• How do you find and hire the right professionals for a project and ensure they are available at project start time? Oil and gas projects require many specialized skills and finding one such person—let alone a team of qualified experts—who are ready to go when a client-company project is ready to kick off can be tricky.
• Will these specialized, on- demand professionals have the software and technology needed to do the work and safeguard sensitive, proprietary data? The short answer is “No, not likely.” The computing environment and legacy software needed for oil and gas projects is beyond what you can expect one person to have on their laptop.
• How can an on-demand, specialized professional with no knowledge of “my company” deliver viable results? The work of oil gas exploration, development, and production is very much a combination of science and art. Within the industry, different companies can have very different approaches to even what may be considered “standard” tasks, processes, and workflows.

For oil and gas to achieve maximum value from the OTM, most of these challenges must be addressed. However, some of these aren’t challenges at all—they’re opportunities.

How it works (addressing the challenges in oil and gas)

Recent experience has shown that the best results for working with the OTM come from having a single open talent provider, with a deep and nuanced understanding of upstream oil and gas, to handle the “logistical parts” of the business arrangement and address these challenges. This approach offloads those responsibilities from the client companies and the on-demand professionals, allowing both parties to quickly start on project work. Furthermore, the client companies avoid the morass of administrative tasks often needed when onboarding new people.

The OTM provider does the following:

• Cultivates the global ecosystem of oil and gas professionals who are candidates to work on client projects. The combination of transitioning industry professionals—be it recent graduates entering the job market, individuals seeking better work-life balance, or seasoned professionals looking to retire—means there is a global pool of qualified, experienced professionals eager to work in the flexible, project-based conditions that the OTM provides—you just have to understand the requirements and know how to find them.
• Provides, manages, and supports the secure, reliable cloud computing environment where the project work is done. The environment must be equipped with major oil and gas software applications, and the advanced data access and security required.
• Evaluates, sources, and provides advanced tools and technology to complement legacy software and workflows. Leading-edge technologies, (such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and large language models (LLM) integrated into the environment deliver the ability for advanced data analysis for real breakthrough innovation in less time. (A future blog post will cover more information about the technology.)
• Works with client companies to understand their project needs and desired results, present suitable candidates for consideration, handles administrative processes (such as setup and invoicing), and assists with project management. An OTM provider with relevant industry knowledge and experience can do this most effectively and efficiently.

This approach provides highly skilled professionals with all the tools and technologies needed to reliably and securely do their very specialized work. The OTM team members collaborate among themselves on the assigned project, meeting with the client sponsor at a frequency specified by the client. So, the project work happens out of band of the client companies regular work, but the client stays informed and can provide direction.

Other industries are using the OTM successfully

If you still think it can’t work in upstream oil and gas, let’s look at another industry with similar challenges: medical and healthcare—specifically teleradiology, which includes remote professionals reading and interpreting the results of diagnostics procedures such as ultrasounds, MRIs, and x-rays. As far back as 2020, medical and healthcare was one of the top 5 industries benefiting from the OTM.
Like oil and gas, the medical industry handles highly sensitive data, uses specialized technology, and requires people with unique, professional skills.

The nature of radiology work lends itself to remote, often part-time work. Smaller hospitals and healthcare providers often can’t afford to keep a radiologist on staff or the kind of radiology specialist that may be needed in only certain situations, such as pediatrics and obstetrics. The OTM makes it possible for these professionals to work remotely and deliver services, diagnoses, and answers when and where they are needed.

Case Studies: the OTM in action in exploration

The next blog post delves into exactly how the OTM breaks down barriers and accelerates innovation. Until then, check out the results from these recent case studies.

Experience has shown that some of the potentially highest-value projects are possibilities that in-house company teams suspect but simply don’t have time to investigate.

• Identifying missed pay zones in an area of declining production.  For a mature area that had been in production for more than three decades, this 26-week, part-time project generated specific technical insights that were previously unconsidered by the client. Download the case study here.
• Unlocking exploration potential in an underexplored active margin. In this 10-week project, the insights generated by the team made it possible for the client to make informed decisions in less time, reducing decision time in the exploration screening process. Download the case study here.