"Bristow also urged offshore companies to improve their forward planning, claiming the potential shortfall could have been avoided if firms considered their long term needs"
I think you'll find that the oil companies themselves were caught out by the increase in activity and meteoric rise in oil price, too. All the majors are having difficulty meeting their recruiting demands from a limited pool of resources. Similarly the demand has pushed support service prices to levels not predicted 3-5 years ago e.g deep water drilling rigs at nearly 500,000 USD per day!
I also think that longer term planning is part of the equation now, with the stop start cycle in activity, and recruiting and downsizing seen before as oil prices fluctuated, being reduced in an attempt to ensure greater continuity and stability.