Published on April 29, 2014

The shale gas revolution has taken the US petrochemical industry to a new level. However, the industry continues to experience shortage of skilled labour.

Equipped with vast supplies of raw materials the US petrochemical firms have announced over 100 billion dollars in projects, including world-scale steam crackers, methanol plants, derivative units and propane dehydrogenation units. These projects have the potential to help US become a global chemical and plastics hub.

This can is possible only if companies and contractors succeed in securing skilled labour to construct these plants.

The major obstacle to the growth of this industry is the lack of talented and qualified personnel. The industry needs skilled workers and STEM workers trained in science, technology, engineering and math. This shortage of skilled workers is expected to worsen with increasing number of shale-enabled projects.

Analysts expect these projects would require nearly 60,000 skilled labour and 40,000-50,000 in the US Gulf Coast. Thus, importation of qualified personnel will become a necessity.

The industry also requires engineers, operators and other qualified workers. But the immigration law restricts the number of professional visas that can be secured in a year. For instance, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it has already reached the limit for H-1B applications for 2015.

Experts say that a comprehensive immigration reform would increase or ease the procedure to in to US qualified and skilled individuals, and also help foreign students graduating from US colleges to become a part of the workforce. For the time being immigration seems to be the only solution to lack of STEM workers.

Companies like ExxonMobil and Dow are actively engaged in promoting science and math among American students. Helping students develop interest in STEM disciplines is going to be the major challenge for this industry.

Thus, its likely that the US petrochemical industry will continue to support, if not openly, the comprehensive immigration reform.