Gender diversity and inclusion in the oil and gas industry has been widely promoted in the last decade to advance women in leadership roles. Following this, the SPE Java Section launched an initiative to encourage and empower women in the industry. The section held a webinar in November, which was moderated by Niesharsa Triaswari from BP Indonesia. In the webinar four high-profile women discussed and shared their leadership and experience in the oil and industry: Shauna Noonan, 2020 SPE president and director of artificial lift engineering at Oxy; Evita H. Legowo, general director of Oil and Gas Government of Indonesia (2008-2012) and professor at Swiss German University; Melanie Cook, president of ExxonMobil Indonesia; and Dian Andyasuri, president of Shell Indonesia. The opening session was led by Shauna Noonan, who shared her experience and first steps in the industry when she first came to Indonesia working for Chevron.

Maria Angela Capello is an Honorary Member of SPE, thought leader, reservoir management expert, and a proponent of  diversity and inclusion and talent development. She was the first woman to supervise seismic acquisition in the jungles of Venezuela. Her career has spanned three continents, with several significant achievements across technical and management disciplines. She is an SPE Distinguished Lecturer and chair of the Distinguished Service Award Committee. She was previously an associate editor of JPT, chair of the Business, Management and Leadership Committee, and serves as director at large of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). Capello was recently knighted by the President of Italy with the “Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia,” for “her contributions to the energy sector, that elevate the prestige of Italy abroad.”

Your career is yours to manage. Be approachable and be bold to be sure you are noticed virtually. Do not wait for the pandemic to pass. Looking to the stories of those who have experienced the hardest situations will teach us how to face anything in our paths, and that is exactly what this article will do. Negotiations affect every aspect of our lives and we might not even realize it.

Anytime strict hierarchical structures are shaken, people like you and me have an opportunity to change them. To build a new paradigm. Former BP CEO John Browne's new book creates links between the engineering principles that brought society where it is today with the principles needed to solve society’s most pressing problems—from climate change to privacy and data security. Open innovation, also referred to as external or network innovation, can accelerate new technology identification and adoption in the oil and gas industry. From trenchless construction for environmentally sensitive areas to heated pipelines which reduce associated upstream and downstream facilities, innovation in pipeline technology is improving operating efficiencies.

The oil and gas industry has increased financial security for many by providing well-paying jobs, yet those opportunities have not been available to all. Ten women engineers who are successful in their careers share their best advice for women engineers who are just starting. An oil industry veteran and his petroleum engineer daughter discuss how things have changed for women in the industry and what the future holds for the new generation of energy workers. Among the millennial and Gen Z generations who serve as the primary recruiting pool in the coming years, diversity and inclusion is a key requirement when choosing to accept employment offers. The SPE Women in Energy committee works to create opportunities for women to enable them to step into leadership roles and pursue their career goals.

Ten women engineers who are successful in their careers share their best advice for women engineers who are just starting. An oil industry veteran and his petroleum engineer daughter discuss how things have changed for women in the industry and what the future holds for the new generation of energy workers. In this Women Offshore podcast, offshore professional Amanda Locke shares what it was like for her since her maternity leave ended and she headed back offshore to her job. We hope the collection of these messages will serve to illustrate the state of gender diversity from a cross section of professionals that are exposed to it. Among the millennial and Gen Z generations who serve as the primary recruiting pool in the coming years, diversity and inclusion is a key requirement when choosing to accept employment offers.

SPE Colombian Section in the last three years has implemented different initiatives with the objective of promoting and empowering the skills of women throughout their life cycle that is directly or indirectly involved in the oil and gas industry. These initiatives were created to address the reality of the country that despite the majority of the population is female (51.2%), the country does not represent gender equity since most senior officials are occupied by males (66%).

The strategy to contribute to the empowerment of women was organized into three groups, thus managing to intervene in each stage of their life, which are:

Childhood: Girls and adolescents who are located in areas of influence of our oil industry.

This document summarizes the efforts made by SPE COLOMBIA to promote gender equity in the Oil and gas sector, thus motivating women, adolescents and girls to move towards a higher standard, improve their conditions and position as a leaders from their own environment through STEM vocational exploration activities (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics), mentoring by senior industry professionals, professional coaching and networking workshops.

With these activities, it has been shown again that the empowerment of women and girls has a multiplier effect and helps to promote economic growth and development throughout the world. In recent years, there has been an increase in the participation of women in the activities of the SPE Colombian Section, the promotion of inclusion in their companies and an improvement in their confidence to face the world. Similarly, the importance of men in achieving gender equality was identified, they can contribute to the social and professional development of women.

One of the goals cherished by modern organizations is gender balance, as a proven way to enhance productivity, boost the motivation of employees and enrich the leadership pipelines of internal succession plans. The energy sector follows closely this trend, inclusive of major organizations of operations and services, especially in Oil and Gas. And in no other region of the world this is now more visible than in the Middle East, one of the most active and traditionally leading and strategic regions in the segment. This paper summarizes what factors were fundamental for the very visible blooming of the female leadership, particularly in the oil and gas sectorin the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries. Certainly, middle-eastern women do not account yet for a large or representative number inthe highest roles of private or National Oil Companiesof their countries, but things are rapidly changing, and the blooming is real.

A comparison of key elements considered diagnostic about the empowerment of women, like female workforce percentages, gender gap indexes, and representation of women in leadership roles in oil and gas are herein analyzed for the GCC, comparing those with figures of other regions of the World. Other indicators were included in the analysis, which proved to be key for developing women's leadership, in particular, communication strategies, empowering plans, training, active and visible endorsement of top leaders and other strategies of governmental agencies and corporations. Definitively, the Middle East, and particularly the GCC countries, in which our study is centered, have boldly address cultural issues and traditional barriers, to produce step-changes that are quickly transforming the oil and organizations in all countries of the region. A forecast of opportunities for women's leadership in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry in the future is proposed, in a story of learned best practices worth sharing.

The paper includes a summary of the standing and utilization of social media channels by main organizations in oil and gas. A frame of the current trends analyzed resulted in the identification of the organizations more successful in the utilization of these key channels, so relevant for the general audiences and the new generations. Some unexpected findingsshaped our conclusions about strategies instrumental for step-changes needed in political or cultural settings that may be challenging for boosting women's empowerment.

Renad Ismail represents the face of change at Saudi Aramco. The chemical engineer has been with the company for 5 years and was awarded this year for her work on the company’s crude-to-chemicals projects. The world’s largest oil company says that one in five of its newest hires are now women. Amin Nasser, president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, remarked on the trend at a female-focused conference in Dhahran this week that under his leadership the company is more committed than ever to closing its gender gap. Nabil Al-Dabal, the human resources executive director for Aramco, said earlier this year that the percentage of women being hired at the company is the highest it has ever been, and that one out of three overseas scholarships the company sponsors are now given to women. GROW was launched by Aramco to foster dialogue on how to expand gender opportunities and has drawn the participation of more than 30 companies from Arab states.

Renad Ismail represents the face of change at Saudi Aramco. The chemical engineer has been with the company for 5 years and was awarded this year for her work on the company’s crude-to-chemicals projects. The world’s largest oil company says that one in five of its newest hires are now women. Amin Nasser, president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, remarked on the trend at a female-focused conference in Dhahran this week that under his leadership the company is more committed than ever to closing its gender gap. Nabil Al-Dabal, the human resources executive director for Aramco, said earlier this year that the percentage of women being hired at the company is the highest it has ever been, and that one out of three overseas scholarships the company sponsors are now given to women. GROW was launched by Aramco to foster dialogue on how to expand gender opportunities and has drawn the participation of more than 30 companies from Arab states.