As part of our Vision 2030 series, AXIS Network is pleased to present insights from Stuart Payne, the Chief Executive of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). Stuart articulates his strong vision for the sector, emphasizing the importance of fostering diversity in recruitment to build the most effective team possible. Stuart takes pride in being part of an organization that is gender balanced and a place where women want to work. He advocates for gender balance not only as a moral imperative but as a strategic necessity for sustainable success during this pivotal period of transformation ahead.
The complexity of delivering the future energy system that society wants, the planet needs and that consumers can afford is mind-boggling but it is also non-negotiable. We have to make this work, and we have to do so quickly.
Put simply, we are in a race to deliver a decarbonised energy system (starting with electricity) keep the lights on, homes heated and people moving - and make sure that the costs of doing all this aren’t beyond the reach of ordinary people.
For those of us working in the offshore sector there’s of course an added dimension – the desire to see a fair transition that makes use of the vast skills and experience built up over decades, not only to deliver the energy demands from the current system but to be at the heart of delivering a decarbonised energy future.
It’s not unreasonable to panic when looking at the scale of the challenge. It’s not unreasonable to question whether we can achieve the stated goals set by government, or meet the commitments made by industry.
It is not unreasonable, but it is not inevitable and it’s not the choice we make at the North Sea Transition Authority.
Our choice instead is to see the huge challenge as just the latest that the UK’s offshore energy sector has faced, and has tackled, since the 1960s. From the huge uncertainties involved in the initial exploration of oil and gas, through to the rapid expansion and growth in places like Aberdeen – a place which at the time lacked many of the necessary skills and infrastructure - the industry has taken huge leaps of faith, shown massive determination and immense ingenuity. When barriers stood in the way of progress such as hostile waters, reservoir temperatures and pressures, smart men and women rolled their sleeves up and found a way.
It's something that can, and must, be done again.
The oil and gas industry of 2024 would seem almost unbelievable to those pioneers in the 1960s. To tell them of horizontal drilling, of drill bits controlled via satellite by people thousands of miles away would sound like science fiction. Imagine being part of the team that brought Forties production online in 1975 and thinking that production would still be going on nearly fifty years later.
Imagine telling those engineers developing the Douglas Complex in the East Irish Sea that the reservoirs they were producing from, like Hamilton, would one day be the stores to take back millions of tonnes of CO2 and be at the front row of our work on CCUS.
This industry, and crucially its people, have time and again delivered the seemingly impossible through technology, collaboration, courage, and effort.
The pace of change is of course always accelerating and we’ve got to do it all again in order to find our way through all the obstacles, all the challenges and grab all the opportunities that this energy transition presents.
One thing that I know for absolutely certain is that industry is going to need to have the best team possible, and that means making sure that we up our game in how we appeal to talent from all different backgrounds to want to come and work – and stay working – with us.
The knots that need to be untangled, the locks that need to be picked on this journey are as complex as any that the industrial world has faced and so doing this without a diverse workforce is like doing it with an arm tied behind our backs.
Nowhere is this more obviously true that in terms of female talent. The argument that I would happily defend here is that drawing talent from everywhere and having the best of the best is the route we need to take. In simple terms, if we can only select from a small part of the squad, our team won’t win.
When we’re discussing female talent in the UK then the numbers are stark. Let’s start with the easy one, 51% of the UK population are female – if we as an energy sector don’t continue to improve the rates of recruitment and retention for women, we are missing out on the biggest part of the squad and that’s just wrong.
Sadly, we know that the sector is missing out on female talent. In May of this year, Powerful WOMEN released their annual “State of the Nation” report which showed that within the UK’s energy sector just 5% of the companies in their analysis had a female CEO, 20% of the companies still somehow have managed to have no women at all on their boards. The talent pipeline in the energy sector has slightly better news, with the research reporting that one in three leadership roles (defined as executive committee and their direct report) are held by women, an increase on previous years but still below the organisation’s 2030 target of 40%.
Why does any of this really matter? Isn’t this just another example of a woke culture and handwringing whilst there are “far more important” things to focus on?
For me the answer is to flip the challenge on its head. I don’t support the work of groups like Powerful WOMEN and AXIS because it makes me feel good, or less guilty for being a man. I support them because I know that unless the energy sector grabs the urgent need to continually transform how we show up, how we behave and how we deliver, we won’t make the massive breakthroughs that lie ahead. I don’t view the gender challenge as one of “why aren’t we nicer to women”, I view it as “why can’t we recruit and hold onto women – why don’t they want to be here?”.
Because that’s the truth of it, in the decades ahead this sector will need to convince stakeholders ranging from investors to activists, politicians to protestors that what we do is vital, complicated, nuanced and changing. If we can’t convince our own staff – or potential staff – of that enough for them to stay and lead the sector then what hope do we have of convincing those outside of our industry?
This is to say nothing of the need for having a range of different perspectives in our offices, labs, on our platforms and in our engineering facilities. Obviously, that’s not limited to gender but it’s a big part of it, and we need to strive for a sector that stands out as an inclusive one that it open and welcoming to talent.
I know it makes a positive difference. I’m proud that the organisation I’m part of has a board with an equal balance of genders, across our staff we are literally 50/50 right now, and my executive team happens to have more women than men. In all cases the people on the team were picked solely because they were the best candidates, which is how it should always be. I am convinced that having a healthy balance in our organisation helps us make better decisions, be more creative and crucially be a great place to work. That balance, with visible and respected role models also helps us attract the next person, and the next.
The energy industry has to do just this. It needs to push harder to attract and retain great people – including far more women – in order to be able to deliver the change needed and engage effectively with the outside world.
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