Pub.1 2019-2020 Issue 1

and gas) had the highest average industry salaries in the U.S. in 2018. The median salary in 2017 was $123,000. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the following stats in July 2019: Industry Hourly mean wage Annual mean wage Oil and gas extraction $75.73 $157,520 Petroleum and coal products manufacturing $68.72 $142,930 Schools are trying to help. Many of them are developing an infrastructure and pipelines that will help women to transition more easily into the industry. As a result, more women are finding their way into the petroleum industry. There’s an advantage to having a more diverse work force. Diversity of gender brings with it diversity of thought, and that translates into teams that are better balanced and that make better decisions as a direct result of that balance. Now is definitely the time for a shift toward employing more women: • Women are choosing to study STEM subjects, and those subjects provide a natural path into the petroleum industry. • Those women who work in the industry say they are being treated with courtesy and respect. That isn’t the case in every industry, but it is in this one. • Petroleum is an excellent choice for those who enjoy the outdoors, because much of the work is done away from an office environment. Lind- sey Gordon, one of BP’s petroleum engineers, notes that she gets to work by helicopter, and has found great camaraderie with fellow employees working with her in an offshore environment. contiuned from page 17 • Although it can be difficult to balance the demands of work and children, having a spouse who is a full-partner makes a real difference. That is more likely to happen now than ever before. In addition, it is also import- ant to be very clear about priorities. Nobody can do everything. You have to make choices. But if you are clear about the main direction, a career and a family are not mutually exclusive. Who are some of the women who have gotten involved? • Katie Mehnert, CEO of a business called Pink Petro that she started in 2015 with money from Shell and other companies in the energy industry, is working to recruit more women because she sees the need. The biggest problem she has is just getting women to apply. They don’t think they’ve got a shot at the jobs, and maybe they don’t realize how good the pay is. She is trying to change that. • In 2016, Vicki Hollub became the first women in the U.S. to lead an oil company. She is the president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum. • Christina Smith, the former manager of a Subway store who also worked at a dive shop until she was laid off, decided to go back to school. She learned about a scholarship program sponsored by Shell and Marathon. The program paid for her degree. Now, at 40, she works in Deer Park at a Shell plant as a shift supervisor. She says she hasn’t had to deal with harassment or discrimination. She feels respected, at least in part because she also thinks people listen to what she has to say. • Lori Fremin is a Shell employee who is currently working as a general manager for surface engineering. She’s been working for Shell for 26 years. She’s less than five feet tall. Sometimes the people who meet her don’t initially realize that she is part of senior management and that she has an engineering background. She makes it a point to mentor other women. The Society of Petroleum Engineers has a committee called Women in Energy that was organized to promote gender diversity and create career opportuni- ties for women. There are eight members: • The chair • The deputy chair • An advisor • Five focus area leads All committee members except the advisor serve for three years; the advisor can serve as long as four years. For more information about this committee, visit www.spe.org/volunteer/women-in-energy.php. For those who are thinking about a career in petroleum geology, one book to read is Anomalies — Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology: 1917–2017 by Robbie Rice Gries. The author, who studied geology at Colorado State Univer- sity, was the first woman to graduate there in geology. She credits Affirmative Action for the fact that she was treated equally after she was employed; bosses judged women the same way they judged men. Her book celebrates the stories of women who became leaders in the field, starting at a time when women were not allowed a vote in elections. They also had to deal with unfair working conditions and an assumption that they ought to be home if they had husbands and children. One of the women whose stories were included in the book was Emma Summers, who taught piano in the 1890s in Los Angeles and later became known as the Oil Queen of California after doing everything she could to understand the business, including visiting wells, finding out how the equipment worked and learning how to sell oil. It is important for the petroleum industry to hire as many people as possible, because there is so much work to be done. Although progress is being made in the renewable energy sector, the oil and gas industry supplies about half of all energy needs throughout the world. It’s going to be a while before that situation changes. The companies that don’t recognize the importance of hiring every qualified applicant are companies that will be less likely to survive in the challenging (and adventurous) years ahead. It is important for the petroleum industry to hire as many people as possible, because there is so much work to be done. Although progress is being made in the renewable energy sector, the oil and gas industry supplies about half of all energy needs throughout the world. It’s going to be a while before that situation changes. 18 UP DATE