Being responsible for an entire gas production facility with high value assets can be no easy job but for Wendy Bart, it’s in her DNA.
As a fully trained Oil Search process technician, Bart is now the company’s first female Production Supervisor and maybe even the country’s.
Bart ensures day to day operations of OSL’s Hides maintenance and production team under her care is executed safely and effectively.
“And it’s not because I am a woman that I have been trained to do certain things but it is because I am a woman that I can do all this and more,” she said.
Bart, who hails from East Sepik province, joined Oil Search in 2006 through the company’s Apprenticeship Program and went on to participate in the Oil Search Accelerated Development Program and the Citizen Development Program (CDP). The CDP creates a pipeline of PNG leadership talent to meet the company’s current and future needs.
With the support of her senior leaders, Bart has undergone extensive on- and off-the-job development in preparation for this role, including leadership coaching.
She was one of the first two females to operate Oil Search’s Kutubu refinery where she helped supervise the processing of crude oil from an on-site storage tank into jet fuel, kerosene and diesel.
Bart admitted the journey was not easy.
“I have come a long way since I first started as an apprentice process technician,” she said.
“Oil Search did more for me than I could ever imagine. They believed in me and helped me realise I was paving the way for women in PNG when I became the first female refinery operator, control room operator, production trainer and now the first female production supervisor.
“I am honoured to work for a Company that stands for gender equality right down to the floor, giving every support from training and coaching to exposure within all areas of the business. My story is a testament of this.”
Bart is also one of many proud parents on a fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work roster.
“This is my profession, this is what I do for a living to support my family and I think Oil Search’s 28-days FIFO roster is ideal as I get to have equal time off work to be with them. On top of that, my children are also cared for in education and health by the Company.”
Her advice to girls looking at technical fields is that you can achieve anything if you put your minds to it.
“I would like to be an inspiring role model for all females venturing into technical fields that were once male dominated.”
The Hides gas field, located in PDL 1, was discovered in 1987. Gas from this field is used to supply the Hides Gas-to-Electricity Project, which commenced in 1991 and is operated by Oil Search. The Hides GTE
Project consists of a pipeline connecting the Hides 1 and Hides 2 wells to a small gas conditioning plant at the Hides Production Facility located in the Tagari River valley. Sales gas is then used by the Porgera Joint Venture to generate electricity in an adjacent facility.
The electricity is transmitted to the Porgera Gold Mine by overhead wire. Condensate produced with the gas is distilled into naphtha and diesel which is used within the Hides facility and sold into the local market, with the balance transported by truck to the ExxonMobil operated Hides Gas Conditioning Plant for export.
(Wendy Bart and OSL MD, Peter Botten)