Gender equality in oil and gas put under the microscope

…major sub-contractor to facilitate hiring of more women

By Jarryl Bryan

One of the features of the Guyana International Petroleum Business Summit (GIPEX) 2018 was the forum it offered locals and interested parties to express their views on the oil and gas industry in Guyana.

The discussion forum featured members of the audience firing questions at presenters on various topical issues related to oil and gas. In particular, one member of the audience took the panel head on regarding the meaningful inclusion of women in an industry, which she said is seen as a quintessential man’s world.
“Throughout the conference, I have really not heard anything about involvement of women in the oil and gas industry and how the company intends to get us involved,” Dr Dawn Steward, one of the participants, observed.
“In Guyana, its (oil) new and it’s an embryonic stage. At the same time, Guyana’s population is high with women. So how do you get us involved in this, as you know, a man’s world? And we want to be a part of this man’s world. And we want you to bring us into this industry in some form or fashion?”
In response to her queries, Panellist Carlos LaTorre of TechnipFMC acknowledged the potential more women would bring to the industry. However, he also spoke of the challenges his company has faced getting more women involved… including the lack of women coming forward to apply for oil and gas jobs.
“We hired 10 engineers and the first question (he was asked was) how many women (were hired). And it was an embarrassing moment… none. Not because we didn’t want to. We interviewed 30 people… candidates from the university. Guess how many women showed up to the interview… it was one.”

“Unfortunately, we had to pick the 10 best. It is a very impartial process. But we really would like to have more women in mainstream. In our company, diversity is a core value. As an example, of the eight executive officers of the company, three of them are women. The second in command, our CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is a woman. So it’s something we try to promote.”
He revealed that TechnipFMC, which was contracted by Exxon’s affiliates last year to supply engineering equipment, plans to start offering scholarships to the students from Government Technical Institute (GTI) and the University of Guyana (UG).
These scholarships, he revealed, would come with the requirement that even quotas of both genders are recruited. La Torre expressed the hope that this measure piques the interest of more women, in the oil and gas industry. At the same time, LaTorre noted the harsh reality of the oil sector.
“It’s a harsh world, let’s face it,” he observed. “A lot of the jobs (in the sector) are rotational jobs. You go; you spend 28 days off shore. If you’re a mother, it’s a little challenging. But again, its onus, the company, to offer the mechanism to make sure we can make it viable.”

Not an excuse
But Dr Steward, the participant who initially posed the question, was not having that explanation; in the fiery exchange that followed, she insisted that women are up to the task, earning loud applause from those gathered.
“I think that is not an excuse. We’ve been in the military. I’ve served in the US military and we’ve been deployed. Women are quite capable, whether we have children or not, to be able to do the job and spend 28 days off shore, on shore, on rigs! So we need to change our way of thinking.”
“Give us the opportunity to enter into this world of oil and gas and anything we think we are capable of doing and mentor the women,” Dr Steward stressed. “In Guyana the problem we have is that we’re not skilled in that field. So we have had to come in from the ground up… and not only to be on rigs… to operate in service space industries and to be able to share our expertise and knowledge in this whole thing.”
Her point was noted by La Torre, who observed that there were many women in the oil and gas sector operating from top to lower tiered jobs. That said, he acknowledged his company’s corporate responsibility to ensure that there is gender parity in its hiring policies.
TechnipFMC is one of several foreign companies that have been awarded contracts relative to Guyana’s oil sector. Last year, the company was awarded a contract to supply subsea equipment for the Liza deep water project in the Stabroek Block. Technip has its operations based in France. In 2016, it merged with FMC Technologies, a recognised name in the energy industry.
The GIPEX summit got underway at the Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, with hundreds of foreign and local delegates and concluded Friday. On the final day, there were two workshops that covered topics focusing on “Doing Business in the Oil and Gas Sector in Guyana” and “Doing Business in Oil Field Services, Supply Chain and Facilities Management”.
The participating entities in the summit included oil giant ExxonMobil, Repsol Exploracion SA, HESS, CNOOC Nexen, CGX Energy Inc, Schlumberger, JHI, GBTI, GTT, Baker Hughes, Siemens, ECO Atlantic, Tiger Tanks, Oceaneering, DAI, EDO, Clariant, TechnipFMC, Scotiabank, MACORP, Bristow, VSH, ERM, and Laparkan.