(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Experts in the oil and gas industry have agreed that the recent downturn in oil prices has failed to create any significant impact on human capital in the energy sector.
Maersk Oil Qatar head of Human Resources Nathalie Rush expressed optimism that regardless of the dip in oil prices, energy demand in the next 20 years "will continue to grow, if not double."
Rush was speaking in special television interview during "The Gulf Intelligence Women in Energy Summit 2015" held in Doha yesterday, where she was joined by World Energy Council chair Marie-Jose Nadeau and Kuwait's Opec governor Nawal al-Fezai.
"I see the downturn in oil prices as an opportunity to actually harness and focus on some key capabilities"ultimately, human capital is one of the things that would make a huge difference if we can attract females from other industries that were impacted by a downturn, or from other parts of the oil and gas sector and move them cross functionally into other parts of the business.
"There are so many opportunities; it is not only in front-line leadership and manual work, there's a lot of other opportunities in the oil and gas sector and I think the downturn is an opportunity in itself," Rush explained.
This was reiterated by Nadeau, who said "broad experiences" are offered to both young men and women in the energy sector. She also stressed that there are "ample opportunities" in other fields of oil and gas such as energy efficiency, innovation, and renewables.
"We should not just limit ourselves to rigs or refineries; there are much more opportunities. There are significant opportunities in the hiring levels of management, and we could be concerned as much with sticky floors as we are with glass ceilings," Nadeau added.
But al-Fezai also cited "complications" in the energy sector's technical and economic side such as the looming shortage in human capital due to retirement of workforce employed since the 1980s.
"The generation working in the eighties is now headed for retirement, which is why there is a need to fill these vacancies," al-Fezai warned.
According to Nadeau, women only represent 1% of executive level positions in the Gulf states. This was echoed by Rush, who revealed that in the Middle East, only 3% of the oil and gas sector as a whole is represented by females. On the other hand, Rush added that only 60% of men within the oil and gas top organisation have a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) background in terms of education, making it "very possible" for women to occupy senior roles within the energy sector.
She also raised the issue of retention and opportunities for women to get promoted in the company.
"The problem is not so much around attracting more women into the workplace; it is working well and is rising. But the challenge is in the retention and promotion around the organisation," Rush said.
She added, "We need to consider how the retention scheme works, how do we lower the barriers to make it easy for women to come back to work after childbirth, to maintain their careers or their skills and capabilities to retain their positions and compete for senior roles."
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