Global oil demand is forecast to reach 103.0 Mb/d in 2025. Industry operations are under pressure, with 90% of oil and gas organizations expecting cyber risk to increase. HR teams must now manage a workforce that contends with both heightened activity and escalating security demands.
Key Takeaways
- 1.0% global growth in oil demand in 2025, reaching 103.0 Mb/d
- 2.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil production outage in 2023 due to OPEC+ supply disruptions as referenced in the IEA’s supply analysis
- 3.1% average annual growth in global oil & gas production for 2024–2025 cited by the IEA’s Oil Market Report baseline scenario
- $191 billion global upstream oil & gas digital transformation market value estimated for 2023 in the referenced market sizing study
- $35.8 billion global oilfield services market size in 2023 (up from $32.3 billion in 2022) as reported by the cited market research firm
- $38.6 billion global oil and gas drone services market size forecast for 2024 in the cited vendor research
- 44% of oil and gas companies reported experiencing a security incident within the last 12 months in the cited industry survey
- 32% of oil & gas incidents in the cited industry dataset involved cyber/IT or operational technology-related causes (industry incident analysis report)
- US refinery utilization averaged 91.3% in 2023 per EIA monthly/annual operational statistics (annual average)
- In 2023, 98.3% of US refining capacity was operating at or below the rated capacity level; annual utilization indicates near-full operation (EIA utilization)
- 3.1 million critical infrastructure assets are exposed to the internet via unmanaged systems as estimated in the referenced CISA report
- Oil and gas companies increased cybersecurity spending by 12% in 2023 per the referenced Gartner/industry spend tracker
- US workplace fatalities in mining and oil/gas extraction were 43 in 2022 per BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
- 63% of industrial organizations report security alert fatigue due to high volumes of detections (survey result relevant to OT monitoring in process industries)
- 25% of upstream sites use digital twins or twin prototypes for field planning and optimization (survey result from digital oilfield studies)
Oil industry leaders face rising cyber risk while digital and predictive investments promise major uptime and efficiency gains.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends15 stats
01
1.0% global growth in oil demand in 2025, reaching 103.0 Mb/d
02
2.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil production outage in 2023 due to OPEC+ supply disruptions as referenced in the IEA’s supply analysis
03
3.1% average annual growth in global oil & gas production for 2024–2025 cited by the IEA’s Oil Market Report baseline scenario
04
90% of oil and gas organizations expect cyber risk to increase over the next 12 months (survey percentage reported in the cited report)
05
69.2% of global oil reserves are in the Middle East as reported in the cited statistical review for 2023
06
1,800+ oil & gas OT/ICS vulnerabilities disclosed in 2023 by CISA/ICS-CERT and partners per the cited ICS vulnerability activity dataset summary
07
US crude oil production averaged 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023 per EIA annual summary
08
Oil & gas extraction accounted for 5.3% of all US manufacturing employment in 2023 (NAICS 211/sector share from BLS employment series)
09
S&P Global Commodity Insights reported that upstream flaring volumes declined by 20% in 2022 relative to 2019 in their referenced analysis for countries adopting flare-reduction policies
10
US EPA reported that the petroleum and natural gas sector emitted 4.6 million tons of methane in 2022 (as reported in EPA methane inventory tables)
11
3.7% year-over-year growth in global oil demand in 2024 (forecast average) reflects a 2023 base and includes seasonal variation across quarters
12
1.2 million b/d of spare refining capacity was available globally in 2024 according to the IEA’s Oil Market Report refining outlook (reported as incremental capacity versus utilization constraints)
13
6.6 million b/d of oil was produced by OPEC members in May 2024 (monthly production figure in the OPEC MOMR database)
14
59.5% of crude oil processed in U.S. refineries came from foreign sources in 2023 (share of input supply per EIA refinery inputs)
15
91.3% refinery utilization averaged in 2023 (annual average) is a measure of actual throughput as a percentage of operable capacity
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
With oil demand projected to rise by 1.0% in 2025 to 103.0 Mb/d while cyber risk is expected to increase for 90% of oil and gas organizations and 1,800+ OT and ICS vulnerabilities were disclosed in 2023, the key Industry Trends signal for HR is that the workforce must be rapidly prepared for both steadier production growth and escalating operational security needs.
02 · Category
Market Size10 stats
01
$191 billion global upstream oil & gas digital transformation market value estimated for 2023 in the referenced market sizing study
02
$35.8 billion global oilfield services market size in 2023 (up from $32.3 billion in 2022) as reported by the cited market research firm
03
$38.6 billion global oil and gas drone services market size forecast for 2024 in the cited vendor research
04
Worldwide spending on public cloud services is projected to reach $679 billion in 2024 per Gartner forecast; used to contextualize cloud budget allocation across industries including oil & gas
05
Carbon capture and storage in oil & gas is expected to reach 19 million tonnes per year capacity by 2030 in the cited IEA CCUS scenario
06
Industrial IoT in oil & gas is forecast to grow from $18.4 billion in 2022 to $38.9 billion in 2030 (CAGR cited in the report)
07
$28.0 billion global industrial software market value for process manufacturing is projected for 2027 (includes MES/SCADA/plant optimization software components used in energy and process industries)
08
$8.7 billion global predictive maintenance market size in 2023 for industrial applications (includes oil & gas end use in market segmentation)
09
$12.3 billion global OT security market size in 2024 (market definition includes ICS/SCADA security deployed in manufacturing and energy)
10
$14.6 billion global LNG shipping market revenue in 2024 (freight and charter revenue basis per industry shipping analytics report)
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
For the Market Size angle, the oil and gas sector is showing strong budget momentum across HR-relevant tech and services, with forecasts and estimates spanning $191 billion in upstream digital transformation for 2023, $35.8 billion in oilfield services in 2023, and rapid growth areas like Industrial IoT climbing from $18.4 billion in 2022 to $38.9 billion by 2030.
03 · Category
User Adoption1 stats
01
44% of oil and gas companies reported experiencing a security incident within the last 12 months in the cited industry survey
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
In the past year, 44% of oil and gas companies have faced a security incident, highlighting that user adoption of stronger security practices is urgently needed to reduce real-world risk.
04 · Category
Performance Metrics5 stats
01
32% of oil & gas incidents in the cited industry dataset involved cyber/IT or operational technology-related causes (industry incident analysis report)
02
US refinery utilization averaged 91.3% in 2023 per EIA monthly/annual operational statistics (annual average)
03
In 2023, 98.3% of US refining capacity was operating at or below the rated capacity level; annual utilization indicates near-full operation (EIA utilization)
04
US recordable workplace injury rate in oil and gas extraction was 2.5 per 100 full-time workers in 2022 (BLS/OSHA injury rate series)
05
12% lower methane intensity in the Permian is attributed to operator measures in a peer-reviewed study published in 2022 (methane intensity reduction estimate)
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
Performance metrics show that the industry is pushing near maximum operational output with refinery utilization averaging 91.3% in 2023, yet serious safety risks remain, with a recordable workplace injury rate of 2.5 per 100 full-time workers in oil and gas extraction in 2022, while technology and OT linked incident causes account for 32% of cited incidents.
More related reading
05 · Category
Cost Analysis4 stats
01
3.1 million critical infrastructure assets are exposed to the internet via unmanaged systems as estimated in the referenced CISA report
02
Oil and gas companies increased cybersecurity spending by 12% in 2023 per the referenced Gartner/industry spend tracker
03
US workplace fatalities in mining and oil/gas extraction were 43 in 2022 per BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
04
IEA estimated that reducing methane emissions could deliver $130 billion in net savings by 2030 from avoided losses (Methane Tracker valuation)
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Cost pressures in oil and gas are rising alongside risk and sustainability stakes, with cybersecurity spending up 12% in 2023 and 3.1 million critical infrastructure assets exposed to unmanaged internet systems, while methane reductions alone could yield $130 billion in net savings by 2030.
06 · Category
Risk & Incidents1 stats
01
63% of industrial organizations report security alert fatigue due to high volumes of detections (survey result relevant to OT monitoring in process industries)
Interpretation
Risk & Incidents Interpretation
In the Risk & Incidents landscape for oil industry HR and operations, 63% of industrial organizations report security alert fatigue from high detection volumes, suggesting that incident response quality can be undermined even as monitoring activity increases.
07 · Category
Technology Adoption2 stats
01
25% of upstream sites use digital twins or twin prototypes for field planning and optimization (survey result from digital oilfield studies)
02
3.1 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil production outage in 2023 due to OPEC+ supply disruptions is an estimate of lost supply attributable to the disruptions in that year
Interpretation
Technology Adoption Interpretation
Technology adoption in the oil industry is still uneven, with only 25% of upstream sites using digital twins for field planning while major production disruptions tied to OPEC+ supply issues totaled an estimated loss of 3.1 million barrels per day in 2023.
08 · Category
Cost & Productivity2 stats
01
0.17 TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate) average for the offshore oil and gas sector in 2023 (incident rate measure reported by safety performance analytics)
02
20% reduction in unplanned downtime achievable with predictive maintenance implementations (benefit metric in industrial maintenance ROI studies)
Interpretation
Cost & Productivity Interpretation
In the oil industry’s cost and productivity lens, 2023’s offshore TRIR average of 0.17 signals low incident costs while the 20% reduction in unplanned downtime from predictive maintenance shows how operational forecasting can directly improve productivity.
report visual · Comparison
HR & workforce risk signals in the oil industry
Surveyed oil & gas organizations expect cybersecurity risk to rise, while incident experience and OT/IT cause shares highlight the need for HR-driven training, incident readiness, and governance.
90% of oil and gas organizations expect cyber risk to increase over the next 12 months (survey percentage reported in th90%
63% of industrial organizations report security alert fatigue due to high volumes of detections (survey result relevant
63%
44% of oil and gas companies reported experiencing a security incident within the last 12 months in the cited industry s
44%
32% of oil & gas incidents in the cited industry dataset involved cyber/IT or operational technology-related causes (ind
32%
source-verifiedpositive-technologies.com · ibm.com · verizon.com
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Stefan Wendt. (2026, February 13). HR In The Oil Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-oil-industry-statistics
MLA
Stefan Wendt. "HR In The Oil Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-oil-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Stefan Wendt. 2026. "HR In The Oil Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/hr-in-the-oil-industry-statistics.
Sources & references
40 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+15 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)