Deep beneath the ocean floor, drilling through thousands of feet of solid rock in extremes of temperature and under tonnes of pressure: the task of recovering fossil fuels has always been challenging, and never more so than today.  "With traditional fields in decline and new reserves increasingly being found in remote locations, extraction is becoming more difficult. In the past, the UK's oil and gas was extracted from the relatively shallow North Sea," says Neil Gordon, chief executive of Subsea UK, which represents the interests of the subsea supply chain. "That's still happening, but new reservoirs in the deep waters west of Shetland require the highest level of technical expertise and cutting-edge technologies to bring them to refineries."  Globally, this push to explore in remote areas, and often in pristine environments such as the arctic, means conservation is now a top priority. Civil unrest in oil-rich Middle Eastern nations has also thrust the issue of supply towards the top of the political agenda. Prior to the current drop in oil prices, impacted by developments in Libya, prices had soared in recent months. all this flux is set against a backdrop of deadlines for lowering carbon emissions.  With such challenges, perhaps it is no surprise that the key issue facing UK oil and gas firms is their ability to attract appropriately skilled staff, according to the latest Labour Market Intelligence Survey commissioned by Opito and Skills Development Scotland.  "Without the right people the issues facing the industry cannot be tackled," explains Mike Duncan of Opito, the UK oil and gas industry's focal point for skill and workforce development. "Even if everything else is up in the air - the price of oil, the stability of governmental tax regimes and uncertainty about supply - there should be a stable investment in skills."  a predicted skills shortage, caused by an ageing workforce and too few young people taking STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at school and university, makes this even more crucial. Opito predicts that the oil and gas sector will need 10,000 more employees over the next five years, simply to meet demand. But it could yet adjust this figure downwards, due to an unexpected tax increase levied by the Government on UK oil producers at the last Budget. "It has hit investor confidence and may mean planned projects are put on hold," says Duncan.  Oil & Gas UK, the trade association for the offshore industry, has said the tax increase will reduce momentum in the industry. Mike Tholen, its economics director, points out that a report by consultancy firm Deloitte showed that North Sea drilling activity fell by 52 per cent between april and June this year, compared to the same period in 2010. "This is not what we would expect," he says. "It is increasingly apparent that there is a link between this and the tax levy."  He is pleased that the Treasury has already signalled a concessionary stance, even tweaking the tax levy in July to lighten the burden on start-up companies and those breaking new ground in exploration and developing fields.  Charles Hendry, Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), says: "The Government is committed to supporting investment, which is why the Chancellor announced at the Budget that we would work with industry to consider the case for new categories of field qualifying for field allowance. as part of this discussion, we have already increased the Ring Fenced Ex