May 9, 2018

Texas Comptroller Visits Midland on Tour Marking Contributions of Women in the Workforce

(AUSTIN) — On the fifth stop of his Good for Texas Tour: Women in the Workforce Edition, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar visited the Occidental Petroleum Technical Training Center, where he recognized the achievements of Barbara Bergersen, senior vice president of their Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) business unit, and highlighted the economic impact of Texas women throughout the natural resources and mining industry.

Bergersen has been with Occidental Petroleum since 2000 and today oversees the company’s use of EOR techniques such as carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding and waterfloods. Previously, Bergersen was manager of asset development for Permian EOR. She also has served as the business unit’s operations development manager and reservoir management team leader for CO2 and waterfloods. Before joining Occidental as part of the acquisition of Altura Energy, Bergersen worked in production operation research at Shell Development and was a reservoir and production engineer for offshore Gulf of Mexico, California and Permian properties.

In his Good for Texas Tour: Women in the Workforce Edition, Hegar is sharing the results of a study the Comptroller’s office recently completed examining the economic impact of Texas women. He is touring facilities and meeting with exemplary women leaders across the state in all sectors of Texas’ economy.

“The natural resources and mining industry is a major economic driver in Texas. Women play a big part in that industry, contributing $122.6 billion to the Texas economy — nearly 8 percent of the gross state product, according to most recent data,” Hegar said. “In 2017, Texas women held more than 65,000 jobs in the natural resources and mining industry, and those jobs ultimately supported about 73,000 jobs in other industries throughout our economy.”

More than 6 million women held jobs in Texas in 2017. In that year, 938,000 Texas businesses owned by women generated about $134.2 million in sales. But further efforts are needed to eliminate barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and improve access to top-level positions. Three of the most women-dominated occupations in Texas — health care support, personal care and service and office and administrative support — are among the lowest-paid occupations in the state.

“The goal for this tour is to highlight the triumphs of Texas working women and discuss ways to ensure that women have equal access to advancement in the workplace and leadership roles throughout the Texas economy,” Hegar said.

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