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A few women buck norms in oil-rich Iraq by taking rig site jobs

A few women buck norms in oil-rich Iraq by taking rig site jobs

Often the women are asked what they are doing in the oil fields where the hours are long and the weather unforgiving.
28 Feb, 2021

It’s nearly dawn and Zainab Amjad has been up all night working on an oil rig in southern Iraq. She lowers a sensor into the black depths of a well until sonar waves detect the presence of the crude that fuels her country’s economy.

Elsewhere in the oil-rich province of Basra, Ayat Rawthan is supervising the assembly of large drill pipes. These will bore into the Earth and send crucial data on rock formations to screens sitting a few feet away that she will decipher.

The women, both 24, are among just a handful who have eschewed the dreary office jobs typically handed to female petroleum engineers in Iraq. Instead, they chose to become trailblazers in the country’s oil industry, donning hard hats to take up the gruelling work at rig sites.

They are part of a new generation of talented Iraqi women who are testing the limits imposed by their largely conservative communities. Their determination to find jobs in a historically male-dominated industry is a striking example of the way a burgeoning youth population finds itself increasingly at odds with deeply entrenched and conservative tribal traditions prevalent in Iraq’s southern oil heartland.

The hours Amjad and Rawthan spend in the oil fields are long and the weather unforgiving. Often they are asked what — as women — they are doing there.

“They tell me the field environment only men can withstand,” said Amjad, who spends six weeks at a time living at the rig site. “If I gave up, I’d prove them right.”

A new world

Iraq’s fortunes, both economic and political, tend to ebb and flow with oil markets. Oil sales make up 90 per cent of state revenues — and the vast majority of the crude comes from the south. A price crash brings about an economic crisis; a boom stuffs state coffers. A healthy economy brings a measure of stability, while instability has often undermined the strength of the oil sector. Decades of wars, civil unrest and invasion have stalled production.

Following low oil prices dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic and international disputes, Iraq is showing signs of recovery, with January exports reaching 2.868 million barrels per day at $53 per barrel, according to Oil Ministry statistics.

To most Iraqis, the industry can be summed up by those figures, but Amjad and Rawthan have a more granular view. Every well presents a set of challenges; some required more pressure to pump, others were laden with poisonous gas. “Every field feels like going to a new country,” said Amjad.

Given the industry’s outsized importance to the economy, petrochemical programs in the country’s engineering schools are reserved for students with the highest marks. Both women were in the top 5pc of their graduating class at Basra University in 2018.

In school they became awestruck by drilling. To them it was a new world, with it’s own language: “spudding” was to start drilling operations, a “Christmas tree” was the very top of a wellhead, and “dope” just meant grease.

Every work day plunges them deep into the mysterious affairs below the Earth’s crust, where they use tools to look at formations of minerals and mud, until the precious oil is found. “Like throwing a rock into water and studying the ripples,” explained Rawthan.

To work in the field, Amjad, the daughter of two doctors, knew she had to land a job with an international oil company — and to do that, she would have to stand out. State-run enterprises were a dead end; there, she would be relegated to office work.

Zainab Amjad, a petrochemical engineer, poses for a photo near an oil field outside Basra, Iraq.
Zainab Amjad, a petrochemical engineer, poses for a photo near an oil field outside Basra, Iraq.

“In my free time, on my vacations, days off I was booking trainings, signing up for any program I could,” said Amjad.

When China’s CPECC came to look for new hires, she was the obvious choice. Later, when Texas-based Schlumberger sought wireline engineers she jumped at the chance. The job requires her to determine how much oil is recoverable from a given well. She passed one difficult exam after another to get to the final interview.

Asked if she was certain she could do the job, she said: “Hire me, watch.”

In two months she traded her green hard hat for a shiny white one, signifying her status as supervisor, no longer a trainee — a month quicker than is typical.

Working extra hard despite hardships

Rawthan, too, knew she would have to work extra hard to succeed. Once, when her team had to perform a rare “sidetrack” — drilling another bore next to the original — she stayed awake all night.

“I didn’t sleep for 24 hours, I wanted to understand the whole process, all the tools, from beginning to end,” she said.

Rawthan also now works for Schlumberger, where she collects data from wells used to determine the drilling path later on. She wants to master drilling, and the company is a global leader in the service.

Relatives, friends and even teachers were discouraging: What about the hard physical work? The scorching Basra heat? Living at the rig site for months at a time? And the desert scorpions that roam the reservoirs at night?

“Many times my professors and peers laughed, ‘Sure, we’ll see you out there,’ telling me I wouldn’t be able to make it,” said Rawthan. “But this only pushed me harder.”

Ayat Rawthan, a petrochemical engineer, poses for a photo near an oil field outside Basra, Iraq.
Ayat Rawthan, a petrochemical engineer, poses for a photo near an oil field outside Basra, Iraq.

Their parents were supportive, though. Rawthan’s mother is a civil engineer and her father, the captain of an oil tanker who often spent months at sea.

“They understand why this is my passion,” she said. She hopes to help establish a union to bring like-minded Iraqi female engineers together. For now, none exists.

The work is not without danger. Protests outside oil fields led by angry local tribes and the unemployed can disrupt work and sometimes escalate into violence toward oil workers. Confronted every day by flare stacks that point to Iraq’s obvious oil wealth, others decry state corruption, poor service delivery and joblessness.

But the women are willing to take on these hardships. Amjad barely has time to even consider them: It was 11pm, and she was needed back at work.

“Drilling never stops,” she said.

Comments

Naeem Husain Feb 28, 2021 08:12pm
Nice! They will do good with their determination and hard work will encourage other young females to join the wagon. Best of luck!
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John Feb 28, 2021 08:17pm
Do women in pakistan have the freedom to do such jobs?
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Agha Haider Feb 28, 2021 08:47pm
@John Women in Pakistan fly fighter jets...is this enough to satisfy your curiosity?
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sadiqain Feb 28, 2021 09:01pm
Worked with many aspiring Iraqi women in South Iraq oil fields.
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well-wisher Feb 28, 2021 09:37pm
Brave girls with high aims. Congrats. Respect for understanding parents.
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RationalBabu Feb 28, 2021 09:44pm
@John even most female doctors are not allowed to practice after marriage!
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Feb 28, 2021 10:09pm
No doubt, working on an on-shore or off-shore oil and gas rig is one of the most gruesome, rough, challenging and toughest jobs in the world.
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Tan Mar 01, 2021 01:00am
Based on social experience of men/women in the West. It is better to create women-only oil rigs, where only women work! This will avoid issues like 'he stared at my this part', 'he harrassed' etc. Rig your deal. It will also avoid men-2-men alienation due to normal 'social animal' aspects. Having seggregated-rigs can avoid lots of pain.
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Toni Mar 01, 2021 04:10am
@John asks "Do women in pakistan have the freedom to do such jobs?" Yes, they are in Science, Agriculture, Construction, Aeronautics, Defence forces and Aircraft Pilots; please ask more. In the West not every women is a CEO and most end up doing casual work, you will hardly find a female as a plumber, electrician or a gardener but they do farming, and some senior jobs.
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Syed Hafeez Imran Mar 01, 2021 05:29am
Bravo Congrats on your beavery, entrepreneur spirit and breaking the barriers '
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Ss Mar 01, 2021 07:17am
What an amazing story. Heart warming stuff. Admire the young ladies.
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Teddy Mar 01, 2021 08:22am
Pakistan can never reach this stage.
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Tea is Fantastic !!! Mar 01, 2021 11:11am
@Teddy Indian state sponsor troll spotted
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Tea is Fantastic !!! Mar 01, 2021 11:12am
@John ...another Indian state sponsor troll spotted !!!!
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IMran Mar 01, 2021 11:15am
@John My class mate girls joined industry and were working in field just beside me like others. I am talking of back in 1994. today my daughter does the same.
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babu Mar 01, 2021 01:57pm
More and more Muslim women should work and earn.
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pointless Mar 02, 2021 08:52pm
I have never a roughneck that wasn't covered with grease/oil. These ladies look like they have ever worked on an operating rig.
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