Dumas Paves Own Path, Voice Heard In "Male Dominated" Industry

The Crude Life

00:00 / 25 Minutes

Marlette Dumas, PMP, Sr. Project Risk Management Engineer, BP

Interview and summary by Genneca Houser

Marlette Dumas is a beautiful mind within the oil and gas industry and we had the opportunity to have a great conversation about how she got started, the journey, and her views on the direction for the industry among many other things.

We began at the beginning, where every good story begins and Marlette talked about how she was positively pushed toward math and science learning from a very young age. She continued in her desire to learn more in the STEM fields into college and passed when Marlette may possibly have been ahead of her time. She initially had wanted to venture into renewable energy, but that wasn’t a popular idea then. Plus, when Marlette was starting out, there were even less females in the industry than there are now. Even so, Marlette pushed forward and eventually began her career as a Facilities Engineer BP in Houston, TX.

“And I thought that renewables was the way to go at the time, but that was like 25-30 years ago and it hadn’t quite caught on yet. So I thought, I still wanna be in energy’ and that’s when I began to meet companies like BP and Shell and I just naturally graviated toward mechanical engineering on the projects side.” – Marlette Dumas

After finding a home working for BP, Marlette still had some struggles as a female in such a male dominated world. There were naturally some bumps along the way, but throughout the journey Marlette was able to grow her network and gain positive traction by working hard and doing her best. She did however talk a little about bringing a more “male” energy in the way she chose to dress and present herself in order to allow her voice to be heard – even though Marlette is a highly education woman in the field of Mechanical engineering.

“So I really had to just bring a mentality that ‘hey, just be present’ and try to put my ideas forward and put myself forward even though it was not in the environment that was welcome at the time. It was not very welcome but you still have to figure out how to dig deep and do it anyway.” – Marlette Dumas

It has gotten easier since the beginning of the journey and now Marlette is able to focus on what she likes best about her work within the oil and gas industry. Claiming the best part of what she’s learned so far has been leadership and critical thinking/problem solving abilities, Marlette also loves to analyze all the different facets of a project using the gathered information to solve the problems and create positive change. Lucky for us, Marlette gives us a look into her process and how she goes through gathering and processing the data.

Next we took a look at the industry as it sits right now and Marlette mentioned that it’s all going through a change right. More and more companies are looking to expand toward other forms of energy aside from oil and gas. As more technology becomes available and the conversation about renewable energy becomes more popular, we may see many more changes coming.

“People think that maybe oil and gas is not as attractive as it has been in the past, so we’re looking at other things now like renewables and things like that. So that’s coming on board, even though it may seem slow right now I think that it’ gonna be very, very important as we move forward.” – Marlette Dumas

In moving forward, there are many who may be worried that there may be a push to phase oil and gas out of our energy grid. Marlette, however, believes that we will be looking at more of a balance moving forward as companies make technological advances and other changes. Not just because the social trend is pushing in that direction, either; but also because it possibly may help heal the climate issues. However, because of social trends, there’s nearly demands a better balance.

On another topic, Marlette shared a little bit about a couple of organizations she is involved with. One of them, The Society of Petroleum Engineers, is a non-profit organization that stands as a wonderful resource for the Energy Industry. But all of the organizations that Marlette is involved in focus on helping others to learn skills, build connection, and become educated within the oil and gas industry. So, for any ladies who are interested in getting involved in the Energy Industry, Marlette has some advice.

“Learn as much as you can, while you can…. I’d say, the most important thing is to learn the industry. Learn it inside and out.” – Marlette Dumas

And for our energy workers:

“The work you are doing, it’s very, very important and it’s affecting people’s lives… just understand that we’re doing a very important job and it’s our responsibility to learn our job really well and do the best that we can even though we’re in a world that is changing everyday.” – Marlette Dumas

If you enjoyed the interview, be sure to check out these links!

Talk Texas Oil
The Society of Petroleum Engineers
BP Houston

Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes

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