International oil and gas community forum launches for enthusiasts to convene and converse

The Petroleum & Gas Workers’ Federation of India (PGWFI) is the largest independent federation of trade unions of oil and gas workers of India with over 70,000 members.

In order to provide a voice for those in the oil and gas industry internationally, NatResPro is launching a new oil and gas community online where people in the industry can come together and converse on topics that matter to them.

In India the oil and gas sector is among the six core industries in the country and plays a major role in influencing decision-making for all the other important sections of the economy.

According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, “Crude oil production in 2014-15 up to December 2014 is about 28.171 Million Metric Tonne[s]. Natural gas production in 2014-15 up to December 2014 is about 25.319 Billion Cubic Metre (BCM).”

NatResPro Co-Owners Jason Lavis and Steve Hauxwell had identified a few market problems and a gap in what is provided by online oil and gas portals, which gave birth to the idea of launching a new community that connects like-minded people.

Hauxwell is a drilling engineer with 30 years of experience in the industry while Lavis has over 25 years in sales and marketing in the energy sector.

Most oil and gas communities concentrate on technical or promotional aspects, but that isn’t the case with NatResPro’s newly-launched community section.

“The vast majority of oil and gas websites are either highly technical in nature, or repetition of the latest news. When oil and gas workers want to socialize online, they’re limited to social media. Facebook and LinkedIn do a great job, but we couldn’t help wondering whether we could offer a more industry-relevant user experience,” said Lavis.

The focus will be on  conversations, not simple news or technical information. This is something that has been missing in the oil industry since the much loved Oilpro closed its doors.

NatResPro was established in 2015, during the early stages of the oil and gas downturn.

The startup was primarily involved in recruitment and manpower at the time of its launch, and the first few years had been tough. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost, and at the same time, LinkedIn became the number one place for companies to do their own ‘DIY recruiting’.

The company’s new oil and gas community is still in its infancy, but Hauxwell and Lavis are optimistic and looking to build the community slowly while expecting an authentic ‘grass roots’ building of membership.

The community is currently in beta phase while the final design and features are being put in place.

In addition to the new community, NatResPro is working on a series of new web-based features. In the world of manpower, many recruiters have unfortunately gained a reputation for seeing candidates as commodities.

Sales tactics and playing the ‘numbers game’ can leave candidates and employers alike with a bad taste in their mouths. Hauxwell believes that if NatResPro can provide some of the most extensive and helpful content, long term trust will be built.

“The times in our careers when we change jobs are (usually) relatively short periods, where we’re in between contracts or countries. This gives little opportunity for a manpower firm to build a relationship with those that they find work for. By creating rich online resources, when the time comes that someone needs a job, or a staff member, they’ll know where to come,” said the 30-year veteran.

The logic of giving first, then knowing that we’ll receive later is a more common phenomenon in business nowadays. By building the oil and gas forum, with no commercial intent, NatResPro believe that they will build a place where the best of the internet is experienced.

You can take a look at the new community, and get in at the early stages: https://natrespro.com/community/.

This sponsored story originally appeared on The Sociable.