Recently in Talent Category

Occasionally oil industry remuneration makes the headlines; Lee Raymond's golden goodbye from ExxonMobil or the former-BP trader Jimmy Dyer using BP's leverage (unfairly, say some) at the Cushing WTI delivery point to net bumper bonuses. Or the biggest oil-trading baddie of them all -- Marc Rich -- who seemingly broke just about every white-collar crime in the book in making a ton of money.

So it was only a matter of time before the thorny subject of excessive bonuses reared its head in the world of oil. The latest oil-trading media star is, as The Wall Street Journal described him -- "secretive" Andrew Hall, overlord of Citigroup's highly-profitable energy-trading unit, Phibro.

The current downturn will give the industry a chance now to put its money where its mouth has been on the subject of maintaining personnel. Nearly forgotten in the turmoil has been the whining mantra of the last four years, when leaders scolded themselves unmercifully about how their hire-and-fire mentality through the last major cycle created what's known now as the "lost generation" of the 1980s and translated into the "brain drain" of this decade. Despite signs that the industry is moving more cautiously now than it did in the 1980s on the job retention front, it is clear this recession still may force harder layoff decisions before the year is done.

From CERA in Houston to IP Week in London, here are a few tidbits I've picked up:

Even as the likes of Merrill, GM, Merck and Yahoo have become the latest to join the ranks of companies unleashing job cuts, some quarters of the petrochemical industry appear to be still hiring, but only for select technical positions.

What would be really nice is if the demand for petroleum journalists was as strong as the demand for petroleum engineers.

But we don't have to go to school for as many years, and some of the courses are considered easy. So if you want to just about guarantee yourself a job offer, or multiple ones, upon graduation, follow the advice in this story.

There are plenty of fascinating tales in a recent lawsuit filed against BP by a former trader, Alison Myers. But it's the dollar signs that have everyone talking.

Often at industry conferences, the subject of an impending squeeze on oil industry talent is mentioned as yet one more problem energy companies must face. It's presented along the lines of "we've got restricted access to reserves, we've got global warming issues to deal with, we've got governments wanting to tax us more, and oh, yeah, we've got an old work force."

But in a study just released by Ernst & Young, that issue is not viewed as an aside. It's presented as the number one problem facing the energy industry.

The media is filled with reports on the Societe Generale trader who lost more than $7 billion in equity derivatives, and hid the losses for up to a year.

While other traders have lost vast sums of money making authorized, planned trades in which they grossly misjudged the market (see Amaranth), previous instances of so-called "rogue" traders hiding losses through fake offsetting trades or some other device were limited to only a measly billion or so dollars (see Leeson, Nick).

If the ministers from OPEC thought they were the only act in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, they were in for a surprise. Who stole the show? Well Justin Timberlake for one.

The multi-award winning singer/dancer had top billing when it came to star recognition at the Emirates Palace hotel, the massive arena that was also the venue for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ministerial meeting in the UAE capital on December 5.

No doubt about one of the hot jobs of tomorrow: anything involved in getting oil out of the ground.

In a report that is mostly significant for who it came from, Cambridge Energy Research Associates this week released a study that talks about the long-discussed squeeze on the supply of the type of people needed to make upstream projects a success.