Ageing is a condition, not a birthday.
NOPSEMA, the offshore regulator, puts it plainly in its March 2026 guidance note on ageing assets and life extension: “Ageing is not about how old your equipment is; it is about its condition, and how that is changing over time.”
The age still matters. When NOPSEMA first published this guidance in 2021, it said more than half of the offshore production facilities it regulates were over 20 years old and that some exceeded 50. Those facilities are five years older now. NOPSEMA also said it had found several cases where duty holders had failed to maintain ageing assets and control the risks.
The line that matters for hiring is further in. The guidance looks for appropriate mechanisms to retain suitable levels of expertise and knowledge within the workforce. Keeping old plant safe is partly an engineering problem and partly a people one, and the regulator has said so.
Life extension has moved from option to plan.
In September 2025 the federal government gave final approval for the North West Shelf project to keep operating to 2070, with 48 conditions attached. On the east coast, AEMO's 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities says production from southern fields is declining and that new investment is needed to address supply gaps from 2030. Whatever arrives to fill those gaps, existing plant and pipelines will still be carrying gas through the transition.
Hiring conversations in oil and gas still tend to start with the next big project. For many operators, the more pressing question is who will look after what they already own.
An integrity team is not one job.
Employers often brief us for an integrity engineer as if the title explained the role. In practice the work splits into specialisms, and few people are strong in all of them.
- Corrosion and materials. Working out how fast a system is degrading and why, and what will slow it down.
- Inspection. Planning and running inspection campaigns, often using risk based inspection, and turning the results into decisions. Certifications such as API 510 and API 570 are common here.
- Pipelines. Managing integrity under AS 2885, from in line inspection results to fitness for service calls.
- Structural and subsea. Fatigue, marine growth and remaining life for offshore structures and subsea systems.
- Life extension assessment. Pulling those threads together into a defensible case that an asset can run beyond its original design life.
The experience takes years, and it is hard to borrow.
In our experience, integrity is one of the harder oil and gas disciplines to hire for. A good engineer needs years of seeing how real equipment fails, and the judgement to tell an operator something it does not want to hear. That cannot be picked up in a graduate program or a short course.
The work is also less visible than a major project. It does not come with a ribbon cutting, and it often means a fly in fly out roster. Younger engineers tend to look elsewhere, and many of the most experienced people are closer to retirement than to the start of their careers. Employers are all fishing in the same pond, and contract rates reflect it.
Where we would look, and what we would change.
Widen the search. Pressure equipment and corrosion skills also sit in refining, mineral processing, thermal power, water and defence. Engineers from those sectors can make the move with the right mentor around them. Coal closures in particular will free up people who have spent careers keeping old plant running.
Write the brief around the problem. Say which assets, which failure mechanisms and which decisions the person will own. An honest brief attracts people a generic integrity engineer advertisement will not.
Build the next layer now. Pair experienced people with mid career engineers while the experienced people are still there to teach. Waiting until someone retires is too late.
Candidates. If you have a mechanical, materials or inspection background in another heavy industry, this is a market that will take your call. Few parts of the energy sector are as certain to need you in twenty years.
New projects make the news. Old plant makes the work.