The Diversity & Inclusion Committee was established in Nov 2020 at the SPE Baghdad Section, The Committee’s vision is met with the International (D&I)’s vision is to advance the society’s commitment to diversity and inclusion within the oil and gas community on the section level through advocacy, collaboration, and education. The International D&I committee was launched in 2020, and previously known as the Women in Energy (WIN), which was originally established in 2016.
About the Committee
Committee Organizational Structure
D&I’s mission
- Uphold the legacy of the Women in Energy Standing Committee which is set out to promote leadership, representation, and recognition for women within SPE.
- Provide and support platforms whereby members can share their ideas surrounding Diversity and Inclusion.
- Collaborate, support, and advise on topics relating to Diversity and Inclusion within SPE and external to SPE.
- Promote diversity and inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Committee Members
Noor A. Makee, Production Technologist Engineer, Anton IFMS, Majnoon Oil Field, Iraq
D&I Chair
Noor is a Production Technologist Engineer with over 9 years of experience at IOCs in Basra oil fields, and she is presently a WRFM team lead, Anton IFMS, Majnoon oil field. She started her career as a Process Engineer, and then shifted to Petroleum Engineering as a production technologist engineer with SIPD. She then entered the Shell graduate programme (SGP) for technical and leadership development, and she worked in both field and office engineering positions. Noor earned her BSc in Petrochemical Engineering from Basra Technical College in 2011, and she is presently pursuing her MSc in Renewable Energy Development at Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom. She is passionate about women’s rights and outdoor sports, and she believes that “every woman’s voice has the power to change the world.”
Arwa M. Alrefaai, University of Kansas, US.
Event Programming Lead
Arwa is an Iraqi woman residing in the United States. She is the winner of the Arthur S. and Helen May Johnson Scholarship for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic years, in addition to the Federal Pell Grant, Federal SEOG Grant, and Kansas Comprehensive Grant. Her research interests include using machine learning approaches to evaluate and model the production performance of geothermal reservoirs. She started studying English as a second language at the University of Kansas and graduated in 2017. Arwa received a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering with a geology minor from the University of Kansas in the United States in 2012, as well as a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Basra. She is a member of several international organisations, including SPE, AADE, SWE, and the Non-Traditional Student Foundation.
Ayat Ghaith, Petroleum Engineer, Halliburton, Basra-Iraq
Communications lead
Ayat is a young professional engineer who works for Halliburton in Basra, Iraq’s southernmost city. She formerly lectured in the petroleum engineering department at Al Farabi University College in Baghdad. Ayat has a BSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Technology in Baghdad and has been an SPE member for 6 years.