Anchorage, AK - Oil industry officialls have announced they anticipate a need for hundreds of new employees in the coming months and years ahead. Reasons cited for the need of a larger workforce include development of the North Slope and Arctic Ocean as well as the aging current workforce.

Along with the aforementioned reasons, the proposed natural gas pipeline would be the largest-ever construction project in North America, which would place increased demands on the industry's current workforce. Existing infrastructure on the North Slope also needs maintenance. All of these claims come from BP senior vice president Mike Utsler, who oversees the company's operations at Prudhoe Bay.

Estimates suggest that 40-percent of the professional oil and gas workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next seven years.

In the last two and a half years, Utsler said BP Alaska has hired 600 people, many of whom were recent graduates. On Wednesday the Carlson Center hosted a BP sponsored industry career fair, which included booths from about two dozen other companies, unions and training programs.