An event hosted at UNM aims to recruit more females into the energy industry.
“Women in Power,” an event hosted by The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA) and the New Mexico Energy Forum, was held in the SUB this week.
The event, which was open to the UNM community, sought to bring together career-minded, female college students and influential leaders in the oil and gas industry to explore employment opportunities for women, said vice president and director of communications for NMOGA Wally Drangmeister.
“As an industry, we have a great number of highly successful women, but it really is an area we feel like we’ve been underrepresented long-term, and it’s one of the things we’re here to ensure that people are aware of, what the opportunities are and maybe consider a career in the energy field,” he said.
“Women In Power,” which was hosted by Tara Smith Anderson, Director of Mobile Externalization at the American Petroleum Institute(API), featured keynote speaker Lisa Winn, government relations manager at XTO Energy Inc. as well as a panel of women who work in various industry sectors who shared their insights and experiences.
During her opening speech, Anderson said that there will be 1.3 million job opportunities by the year 2030 that will need to be filled in the energy industry, with only 15% of them slated to go to women.
“Whereas you think of the stereotypical employee of an oil and natural gas industry, often you think of J.R. Ewing, an old White man,” she said, a stigma she says needs to be corrected.
Anderson said the API conducted a multitude of studies, one of which shows that the biggest reason why women don’t consider working in oil and gas is because they have no idea what opportunities there are.
“We love the work that we do, we’re proud, we’re challenged, we have great benefits,” she said. “What is the big hang up?”
Winn said it’s important for students interested in this industry to remember to be true to themselves, “It’s the person, not the gender, that makes the leader, mentor or coach.”
“As a woman we bring extraordinary skills to the table. We’re often told that we possess certain characteristics, that we’re multi-taskers, that we’re nurturers, that we instill trust in others,” she said. “We are so much more than that. Be your best self, embrace the differences and capitalize upon them.”
An important step is to find a good mentor who can give you good feedback, she said “but don’t let the world tell you, ‘you have to act like a man to succeed.’ There are more and more women in the workplace and we must be true to ourselves.”
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Winn said API is a great organization, and although it’s a male dominated industry, times are changing and there are resources available to all women to overcome any challenges, “women as a collective source of connective energy, are limitless,” she said.
Amanda Trujillo-Davis, senior environmental coordinator at Concho Resources and one of the panelists, said she enjoys the versatility her job in the energy industry offers her.
“Every day is a new day, every day is different and exciting,” she said. “On a day to day basis, it’s just challenging, every day there is something new. I don’t really ever feel like I’m drug down or stuck in the office.”
Claire Chase, director of government affairs at Mack Energy, said her biggest challenge was overcoming the public perception of oil and gas, “I’m sure many of you have heard, or seen on TV, negative things. The media likes to sort of tell a certain story.”
Chase said, in her job, she talks to legislators and regulators trying to convince them that oil and gas is not the same industry it was twenty or more years ago, now it’s “highly regulated.”
She said the EPA recently came out and said there is not one case of contaminated drinking water due to fracking and that fracking doesn’t cause earthquakes, “those kind of things that we hear of are not true.”
Matthew Gonzales, director of the Good Neighbor Program at NMOGA, said that due to the ever-changing nature of the industry, students can take advantage of where it’s heading.
“I grew up watching Captain Planet and hearing how horrible fossil fuels were, but you look at things like our own federal government and the energy information administration,” he said. “They are showing us that oil and gas and fossil fuels are still going to be used thirty years from now.”
Gonzales said the average salary in the oil and gas industry is about $75,000 a year and professionals don’t have to leave New Mexico to be a part of it.
“Whether you’re for fossil fuels or you’re for renewable energy, it doesn’t matter; this industry has an impact on our everyday lives,” he said. “This college was built with funds that come from this industry so its important that our students know about that and we give them the opportunity and educate them.”
Matthew Reisen is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
