OTC 2018 By Michelle Leigh Smith

Attendance was down by five percent at the 2018 OTC. “I think the culture for events is changing,” says Katie Mehnert, CEO of Pink Petro, and board member of Lean In Energy. She spoke on a dynamic women’s panel at the WISE (Women in the Industry Sharing Experiences) event in 2015, encouraging more women to seek a seat at the board table.

“Women comprise 28 percent of ExxonMobil’s global workforce,” says Jeremy Eikenberry, spokesperson for ExxonMobil. “Additionally, 40 percent of our worldwide management and professional new hires were women over the past decade; 32 percent of our management and professional population are women, and 35 percent of our worldwide engineering hires are women. Within ExxonMobil’s executive population, 18 percent are women. This represents an increase of 50 percent over the past decade. This increase, in part, is a result of continued focus on early identification and focused development of high-performing female employees.”

A noticeable presence of women in charge could be found in the 11,000 SF Dutch Pavilion, the largest of the international pods. Heleen Bakker, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the U.S. noted that at the first OTC in 1969, there were 2,797 attendees in 368 exhibit spaces. In 2018, attendance exceeded 61,300 from more than 100 countries with 2300 exhibitors.

WISE, a beacon for women at OTC since 2012, offers an opportunity for women and men to share experiences and collaborate on topics such as improved diversity, mentorship, and communications in the workplace. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in the first quarter of 2013 women made up 18% of all roles in the oil and gas industry as a whole. That year, at the 2013 Offshore Europe Conference in Aberdeen, speakers highlighted that the British oil and gas industry must play its role in encouraging more females into oil and gas. The Princess Royal, Royal Patron of Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), said: “Our mission is to increase the number of women in the UK in the science, mathematics, and technology workforces … there is a need to raise the profile of these areas in general, and if you’re doing it for women you’re doing it for everybody.”

Cindy Yeilding, Senior Vice President BP Americas and founder of the WISE event at OTC, introduced is

the panel as an inclusive space comprised of three sessions where men and women have the opportunity to learn or enhance communication skills so as to provide value to the energy industry. Susan Morrice, Chairperson, Belize Natural Energy, shared how some in the industry discouraged her, telling her there was absolutely no oil in Belize.  She had studied the tectonic plates and was familiar with the Mexico Basin and continued her pursuit, undaunted. In drilling her first exploratory well in 2005, BNE unlocked commercial oil reserves. Susan has grown her original vision and today is a global industry leader, an amazing success story when one considers that there was no E&P oil and gas infrastructure or skilled labor force in Belize in 2005.

Morrice discussed the fundamental emotional quotient (EQ), working within teams and pursuing your path. Erin Collins, Operations Improvement Manager at Forum Energy Technologies, led an interactive session that recognized the need to focus on effective communication across personality types in order to be successful as an organization and as individuals. “I heard recently that now, the percentage is about 25 percent in the oil and gas business but this is only a generalization across the board,” she says. “For instance, I think it’s about 4 percent at board level or less. But as I said in my talk at OTC is a much wider problem than defined by sex. There are a number of mindsets that hold male and female back. Our own doubts are our biggest “hold back” so unless we understand our own minds we will continue to be limited.”

Ashild Larsen, CIO and Senior Vice President Corporate IT, Statoil, spoke at a parallel session called The Next Wave, designed to arm young professionals with the tools to succeed in their chosen career paths. What was apparent this year is the growing number of women in leadership positions in oil and gas.

While the disappointing oil prices of the past couple of years has lowered headcounts at many companies, there were some significant steps up for women in leadership positions. This year, Andrejka Bernatova, 36, CFO at Goodnight Midstream LLC and co-founder and former CFO at Core Midstream LLC. was named to the Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list.

Ernst & Young’s Rachel Everaard, Principal for the U.S. Oil and Gas People Advisory Services  says, “The gender gap will also be an important hurdle for oil and gas companies to address,” as companies customize benefits for a younger workforce, one that is concerned with flexibility and work-life balance. “Today, more U.S. women earn bachelor’s degrees than men, yet at the end of 2017, women accounted for just 17 percent of people employed in oil and gas extraction or support activities,” says Everaard. “Further, a survey last year found only 24 percent of women aged between 16 and 35 find jobs in the

industry appealing. To address the generational issue fully, a specific focus on increased diversity — both the pipeline of qualified women and those in leadership positions — will be important.”

As it has since 1969, the conference convened professionals to make critical decisions, share ideas, and develop business partnerships to meet global energy demands. In addition, the 50^th edition of OTC directly benefitted the advancement of the energy sector by supporting the conference’s 13 nonprofit sponsoring organizations, and the Houston community.

OTC also hosted the Rice Alliance Startup Roundup for the fourth time, where 50 emerging companies met one-on-one with investors. More than 275 attended to learn more about these startups and enabled potential partnerships as well as investments.

“We are very pleased with this year’s attendance, as it is above our 52,570 attendance average across OTC’s 50 editions. We are also seeing high interest in next year’s event. 2019 exhibition space in NRG Center was sold out before our 2018 event, and rebooking for the other exhibition areas is underway,” says Wafik Beydoun, 2018 OTC Board of Directors Chairman.

“OTC 2018 began the celebration of 50 years of OTC, culminating in 2019, and reminded all of us of this conference’s deep commitment to the people and companies who have helped it reach this milestone,” adds Beydoun.

Mehnert quotes Fortune as to the daunting nature of the challenge. “Diversity in tech may grab the most headlines, but bringing women into an industry associated with dangerous rigs, “man camps,” and the fracking controversy may be an even tougher challenge. While energy companies have been making some progress on diversity, persistently low oil prices are now threatening to undo those changes.”

For the fourth year, United Against Human Trafficking had a distinct presence on the first floor of NRG Center. Next year’s OTC will take place May 6-9, 2019, at NRG Park.