Big demand is no pipe dream

[peejay 327]

Peejay sez: I actually did this stuff for a living in the 1970's and early 80's back when it was all done on drafting tables with paper and pencil. Unfortunately it is a boom and bust industry. In the boom phase there are long periods of 60+ hour weeks with only Sunday off. It leaves little to no time for life outside of work. During the bust phase you get laid off and job opportunities are slim and none. I got laid off in the early 80's and never went back into it. Some of my friends that stayed with it are making a killing right now.

Big demand is no pipe dream

By LYNN COOK

2008 Houston Chronicle

Sept. 3, 2008, 10:36PM

In the energy sector's good old days, draftsmen penned plans by hand for the tangle of metal pipes that would ultimately become a new refinery or offshore oil platform.

Industry veterans threw an arm around new hires at the drafting table, mentoring rookies along the way.

Today's pipe designers often work in isolated cubicles. They use advanced 3-D software to map out specs for energy infrastructure projects. They're in high demand and have the salaries to show for it.

But thanks to the current energy boom — coupled with years of often brutal hiring and firing practices within the industry — there's a labor shortage in this niche and not nearly enough seasoned hands to coach new recruits.

"The whole apprenticeship culture is largely gone, so it's a challenge. You're not shoulder to shoulder anymore," said Joe Sanders, manager of engineering design for Houston-based Mustang Engineering.

Mustang has a lengthy backlog of oil and natural gas projects around the world, and it's looking to hire hundreds of engineers and pipe designers to handle the load.

While there's a labor shortage in general across the energy spectrum, the pinch is particularly acute for upstream process engineers, who work on exploration and production projects, and 3-D pipe designers.

Two-year degrees

Engineers tend to be highly skilled college-trained employees — often with graduate degrees — but the typical 3-D pipe designer has a two-year associate degree. There's even a fair number of designers with just a high school diploma and 3-D software know-how gleaned on the job.

The educational requirements of 3-D pipe designers may be less rigorous than that of engineers, but the specialists are commanding hefty salaries.

"This is their time," Sanders said, adding that for the past two to three years, Mustang pipe designers have been getting raises every six months. The annual increase is about 20 percent.

"The best designers' compensation is now competing with that of the best engineers. It's almost indistinguishable. This is really unprecedented."

Solid six-figure salaries for some in-house 3-D pipe designers and fat hourly contract work for others is the norm, according to Rob Glasier, head of U.S. operations for Aveva, a British-based firm behind the 3-D design software known as PDMS.

Aveva's program is used in sectors ranging from plastics to pharmaceuticals, and it has become a major player in the energy sector as more infrastructure projects than ever are on the drawing board.

But Glasier laments that every silver lining has a cloud.

"We're constrained as a vendor," he said. "If there aren't enough trained people on our software, then these companies can't take on the jobs that require it. And they don't need to buy more software because there's nobody to use it."

200 designers and counting

Mustang is the perfect case in point. Even though it employs more than 200 3-D pipe designers, it needs more. Sanders said the firm has had such a tough time finding people trained on Aveva's PDMS, it has resorted to using another software package dubbed CADworks where it can.

Those kinds of stories have prompted Aveva to donate almost $2 million worth of software to local colleges, including Houston Community College, San Jacinto College and Texas Southern University.

Doug Coberley, president of Professional Consulting Services and a lecturer in 3-D piping design at HCC, said there's as much pipe design work in Houston today as the rest of the country put together.

"You can't offshore everything. And now there's talk about labor shortages in these areas, even in places like India and China, because they have so much internal growth. They can't handle our jobs, too," he said.

The Catch-22 in any industry — but especially in the hypercyclical energy sector where companies have a reputation for hiring and firing in tandem with the ebb and flow of projects — is that every company wants experience, but few are willing to pay for it long-term.

Often engineering firms feel they cannot afford to hire workers until they land a bid. When they do, they ramp up with contract workers and are under tight deadlines. That means they can't afford to train new recruits.

Now they can't afford not to, said John Hill, department manager of engineering systems for AMEC Paragon.

Hill has been working with PDMS since 1980 when he was in the British office of Brown & Root.

Seeking experience

"They want experience, and I understand why. That's why us old guys are making a ton of money now," Hill said.

"Now, even companies that were late getting in the game are doing internal training. They finally woke up to the fact that the older generation has to impact this stuff so the industry can continue on.

"I'll tell anybody anything I know. I don't have to protect the knowledge."

PAY, PERKS

Pay and perks for 3-D pipe designers are among the best they've ever been. Consider:

• Some contractors are paid $100 an hour.

• Raises twice a year have become standard.

• Some in-house 3-D designers pull down six-figure salaries.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli...iz/5982518.html

[Ban Hammer 14,036]

$100 an hour!

[almaty 19]

wow, brother peejay..i understand the need for family time...good for you

[himher 634]

Yeah, the salaries are 65-80/hr with time and 1/2 for overtime. I've been in E&C since 2005 and the money that the oil / chemical industries are paying now for engineering services is incredible.

(laughing) this NEVER lasts forever though

[peejay 327]

$100 an hour!

Some of the guys I know that were around when I did this kind of work 30 years ago don't have any degree what-so-ever. A lot of us were hired by company recruiters that came to the community college campus during job fairs. They hired us before we finished our 2 year associate degree in design and sent us to their own in-house schools within the engineering company. From there we were assigned to various engineering projects going on within the company.

I ended up working for them for about 5 years. Then the engineering sector tanked and there were massive layoffs throughout the industry. Many of us that couldn't find another job in the engineering sector during the bust cycle never went back to it. The guys that I used to work with that went back to it and transitioned to computer design are definitely doing well now. Unfortunately they had to endure lots of lean times during the bust cycles of this business.

The smart ones know that they can go from $100 an hour to $0 an hour in a heartbeat when these engineering projects dwindle. They don't live the $100 an hour lifestyle, but stash it away for the eventual bust cycle.