As oil and gas assets age and renewables grow, staffing in India will boom

India

Jaydev Sanghavi, executive director of Aarvi Encon, talks to The Energy Year about prospects for strong labour demand in India’s energy sectors, and the company’s ongoing expansion into O&M services. Aarvi Encon provides engineering staffing and consultancy services to the oil and gas, power and infrastructure sectors.

How has Aarvi Encon’s business evolved since going public in 2017?
While India still accounts for 90% of our revenue, we now have operations in the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia, and we serve around 180 clients across various sectors. We have more than 200 engineers deployed in Indonesia and a similar number in the UAE, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia are currently the most promising international growth markets for us.
Our core business has been engineering staffing. We deploy personnel to work as our clients’ representatives. Over the past year, we have added a new O&M vertical, particularly for tank terminal services.
We aim to reshape our business model to 60% engineering staffing in India, 20% international staffing and 20% O&M globally by 2030. This is a deliberate transition away from being a pure staffing provider to offering service-driven, KPI-based contracts.

What opportunities do you see in the O&M space, in India and abroad?
Besides technical staffing services, clients are also looking at service-based engagement with performance targets. Our O&M efforts will remain focused in India for the next few years. Different countries have different legal and operational complexities, and we want to stabilise our model in India before expanding internationally. There is ample demand, as ageing infrastructure needs to be upgraded both in India and across the Gulf.

Who are your target clients in the Gulf, and how do you plan to compete in crowded markets such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE?
At this stage, we are mostly targeting EPC players ahead of national oil companies, although we already work with ADNOC. In the UAE, we also work with Saipem, and in Saudi Arabia, we are associated with Cairn, L&T and McDermott, but not yet with Aramco or Sabic. Once we have a stable local presence and the right teams, we will approach these players directly. In the meantime, we have applied for registration with Aramco and aim to do the same with QatarEnergy.
Our differentiator is robust compliance. Clients are particular about how personnel are mobilised and under what types of visas, and we ensure that we fully comply with the laws of the land in every geography. We work with leading EPC players in India and internationally, and our track record under those relationships helps open doors.

What competitive advantages can you offer specifically in the Indian market?
We remain focused on engineering roles within the energy industry, and this specialisation has enabled us to build a deep pool of reliable talent.
Our database has more than 700,000 profiles, and we have more than 100 recruiters across key cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata. We understand regional needs and can quickly find and place the right talent.
We have partnered on an AI-driven recruitment tool that sits on top of our database and conducts first-level screening using both WhatsApp and voice calls. Candidates who express interest in positions and meet certain criteria are then evaluated by senior recruiters. This has significantly improved our response time and reach.

What are your expectations regarding the long-term demand for engineering talent in the oil and gas and renewables sectors?
Oil and gas are not going away. Production, refining and petrochemicals will remain essential for the global energy mix for decades. India, with its expanding refining capacity, is in a good position to benefit.
At the same time, India is becoming a global engineering hub. EPC players are setting up capability centres in the country that are evolving from back-office support hubs to full-fledged design operations.
Renewables are showing good momentum, too, in no small part because the government is pushing for backward integration in solar manufacturing and encouraging ventures for panel and cell production. We are currently involved with a large energy company, supplying O&M services to their renewables manufacturing units.

What are the biggest workforce challenges for the energy industry in India?
The biggest challenge is talent. When I graduated in 1992, most engineers were heading into IT. Energy was not a preferred sector. That has changed only recently. The IT sector has matured, and more professionals are looking seriously at oil and gas and renewables as an option.
In such a context, upskilling is essential. We invest heavily in training, particularly in HSE and compliance, to prepare personnel before deployment and to meet client-specific safety requirements on sites.

Are the requirements of your renewables clients significantly different from those of oil and gas companies?
Yes, because the project cycles in renewables are shorter – under 18 months compared to up to three years for refineries. Solar projects are more focused on electrical systems, whereas oil and gas projects require expertise with rotating equipment, distillation and exposure to high-pressure and high-temperature environments.
The need for skilled personnel is high in both sectors. Renewables manufacturing facilities are growing rapidly in India. We expect consolidation as more players enter the field, and this will bring some churn, but the demand for personnel and the opportunities for us will remain strong.

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