Women work in oil rigs too

First Alphabet
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4278196.cms?flstry=1

17 Mar 2009, 2119 hrs IST, Hemamalini Venkatraman & V Balasubramanian, ET Bureau


CHENNAI: Energy companies have started throwing doors open to women in the male-dominated oil and gas industry. Be it rigs (on land or sea),
drilling or exploratory work, women are making their mark in frontline operational and engineering roles.

While Schlumberger — a leading oilfield service MNC with a market cap of $30 billion — takes pride in saying that it has a much better sex ratio than anyone else in this field, companies like Cairn Energy too have started deploying women in such challenging offshore assignments.

In all, Schlumberger has about 100 hardcore women technical staff engaged in various roles like research and tool installation. There are about 30 to 40 women technocrats offshore, who spend 24x7 days on rigs, matching their male counterparts. They work in the sea bases of Mumbai, Rajahmundry and Kakinada and land rigs of Assam, Rajasthan and Gujarat, a Schlumberger field engineer said.

Some have been hired from IIT, where campus records peg an Indian posting at Rs 23 lakh per annum. Senior field engineer Neha Sahdev, who has completed three years with Schlumberger, deems field exposure necessary to move up the career ladder. She also has led a crew, which has motivated her to perform better.

Acceptance levels have gone up and there is enough scope for women in this profession. Usually, it takes about three to four years of field experience, before an engineer graduates to managerial or office base positions, she told ET .


Other companies too are catching up on this front. Cairn Energy, for instance, reckoned among the fastest-growing and low-cost E&P (exploration and production) companies, now has women working onsite on one of India’s biggest oil and gas development (onshore hydrocarbon discovery) projects in Rajasthan in the last two decades.

Take the case of Monica. After completing her engineering from Rajasthan, she decided to plunge into an off-beat career at Cairn. She and 19 others from various districts of the state were recruited under Cairn’s campus hiring programme.

MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur, Jai Narain Vyas University and Mody Institute of Technology and Science are the varsity names, from where such candidates were hired. Some of them are first generation degree holders.

Of Cairn’s 900-plus employee base, women constitute 10.8%, but by end-2009, this percentage is expected to change, its HR and administration director P Senthil Kumar said.



"Cairn India has always managed to create new frontiers, be it in local recruitment or focusing on improving the gender ratio through the recruitment process in a male-dominated industry," he told ET.

Aruna and Tharangini, recruited from local colleges, were the first women lab trainees to join the Cairn’s Ravva chemistry laboratory.

Despite extreme climate with temperature hovering around 50 degree celsius at these remote locations, the job environment is conducive, which is attracting more women. "Not for a moment have I felt out of place in this so-called male dominated field. I have received cooperation from all quarters and things have been as difficult or easy as my other colleagues," says geologist Jayayanti Basu Mallik, who has been with Cairn India since 2006.

Geology has limited career options in India — in research, geological surveys and oil industry, she pointed out.
Says Live Connections CEO Hema Subramaniam, the oil and gas sector has still not evolved as an industry that encourages the entry of women. For example, in the Gulf co-operative council region, the head-hunting firm found that the profile of a woman candidate for an HR function was rejected as the Abu Dhabi-based oil and gas company wanted to hire only a man for this role.

While Live Connections has done over Rs 1.2 crore business in the Gulf region between April 2008 and now, it finds that hiring women by this sector is still nascent.

Even ONGC is male terrain. Though women constitute around 5% of its 32,000 plus workforce, they are mostly engaged in non-technical disciplines. "It is men mechanical engineers, who become drilling engineers," said an ONGC official.

Women mechanical engineers are deployed in workshops and other establishments. ONGC refrains from deputing women staff offshore because of dormitory lodging arrangements. "However, a group gathering station (Navagam, Gujarat) — a collecting point for crude oil from many wells — is headed by a lady," he said.

Ms Namita Godharam, who joined Cairn in September 2007 in electrical department (operations), says her career choice has inspired many of her batchmates to consider this path.

To give the work-life balance, companies like Cairn India ensure that the employees onsite get the best of facilities be it in living quarters as well. The onsite employees are supported well, Mr Kumar said.