Australia's federal resources minister has told a national oil and gas conference that not enough progress has been made on employing indigenous workers in the industrial sector.

Speaking at the Darwin event, Martin Ferguson argued that, with the indigenous population growing at a faster rate than the non-indigenous population in the north of the country, and with demand for oil and gas professionals steadily rising, employers need to make a greater effort to shift their recruitment policies.

He explained that more investment should be made in training indigenous workers with oil and gas industry-specific skills, largely as they represent "a local source of labour".

"In doing so, we can also jointly contribute to removing social disadvantage in Australia, getting jobs, education, social participation right and therefore overcoming one of Australia's social blights," he added.

The 2008 South East Asia Australia Offshore Conference was also warned that, at current production rates, the nation's oil resources may last little more than a decade, thereby making supply security a "major concern", for the government and industries.