Deborah Benjamin

Lead Editor-Newsgathering

ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt

The gap in the energy sector between men and women employees has always been a Gulf apart, even with the gains made in recent years.

Deborah Benjamin is all too aware of that gap. She has been in the industry for the last 25 years, starting her career in the downstream sector with Shell and then Sol Petroleum. She’s one of those women who found herself in a male-dominated environment.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy is one of the least gender-diverse sectors of the global economy. Only 16 per cent of the energy sector’s employees are women, despite making up nearly 40 per cent of global employment. Further, according to the IEA, wages for women in the energy sector are almost 15 per cent lower than for men at the same skill levels, and less than 15 per cent of senior managers in the energy sector are women.

Those global figures mirror the state of the industry in T&T. In 2019, an Energy Chamber report cited the Central Statistical Office (CSO), which stated women make up approximately 41 per cent of the national workforce. However, in the energy sector (petroleum and gas sector, including production, refining, and service contractors), women accounted for less than 20 per cent of that segment in the workforce in 2017.

Such numbers bring a struggle to women in the energy industry.

Benjamin recalls, “You can stumble across an all-male board or an all-male management or all-male colleagues. Little things like ill-fitting PPE—as safety wear still is not designed for the female physique—being able to use a bathroom when you’re on a site. These things are scheduled without taking simple things like that into consideration, so when I go to a site visit, I assume maybe there is a washroom around, but it’s actually a green field site out in the middle of nowhere.”

Beyond the physical realm, Benjamin reflected on the “mental pushback” that was meted out to her by some of her superiors, despite the company promoting and branding itself as one of equal opportunity.

Yet, for this South girl, who went to St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando, she would persevere through the years in the energy sector. In fact, the first ten years of her life in the industry were spent working across the Caribbean as opposed to here at home. She speaks of how the different challenges toughened her and forced her to survive in the industry.

She started her career as a sales executive, managing the accounts of Shell and subsequently Sol Petroleum for their retail sector. When Shell sold to Sol Petroleum, she headed several markets in the Eastern Caribbean, living in St Kitts for a few years before moving to the British Virgin Islands for 12 years. Her career had taken on a different turn dealing with anything that required fuel from mega yachts to private jets and marinas to gas stations to power companies and hotel resorts for cooking gas.

From there, Benjamin would kick on to the upstream sector. That, in itself, would be a great accomplishment. “Very few in the industry would have spread the gamut of downstream, midstream, and upstream, and I think that is something unique that I enjoyed throughout my career to be able to see the three different levels of the oil and gas sector,” she told the WE magazine.

These days, she is plying her trade in Guyana and Suriname, which are both experiencing an uptick in oil and gas production. “It is truly an exciting time for our region,” she said.

Benjamin’s career in the energy sector is a major accomplishment for a woman who has not studied engineering. She studied business management at university and would go on to do a master’s in international business. She admitted it’s different from what traditional oil and gas employees would study.

She said, “A lot of people assumed that I was an engineer, but I didn’t go that route; I actually came up on the business side, which proved to be one of the reasons I was actually successful in many of my management roles.

“Those networking skills, experience in business management and contract execution, which are not typical facets of the engineering environment, proved to be an asset.

Benjamin said her career in the energy industry has proven that success can be attained even if it doesn’t look the same. She explained, “With any sector, there is no one path to success. There are so many elements that make up a successful business beyond the traditional mindset that people tend to have, you need to understand the bigger picture.”

Benjamin said her career in the energy industry has proven that success can be attained even if it doesn’t look the same. She explained, “With any sector, there is no one path to success. There are so many elements that make up a successful business beyond the traditional mindset that people tend to have; you need to understand the bigger picture.”

Earlier this year, Benjamin commissioned and published a book titled A Different Energy: Women in Caribbean Oil and Gas, with Celeste Mohammed. The book dives into how women dealt with challenges within the industry. Benjamin’s own story is also featured.

She wouldn’t be finished there. While in Jamaica in 2016, she received a call from Prestige Holdings to bring the internationally renowned franchise of Starbucks to T&T. She would go on to roll out eight stores in two years in what she said was a very ambitious project.

For this avid reader, her career’s work in the energy industry has made it easier for other women to follow

“There were a few mentors in my early days, not many, and then me coming up also tried to make a difference and set an example while also trying to use my voice as a platform to let other young ladies know that this is something that you can get involved in,” she explained.

Benjamin has found much inspiration in Íngrid Betancourt, the former French-Colombian politician, whose biography, Even Silence has an End, details her mental survival through six years as a prisoner of FARC in a Colombian jungle. FARC was Colombia’s largest irregular army.

One of Deborah’s greatest joys is raising her 18-year-old son as a single mother.

The post Deborah Benjamin first appeared on CNC3.