Todd's Juliet Oliver – adding world-class value

Todd Energy employee Juliet Oliver was named Young Energy Professional of the Year at the 2021 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards, for leading a company-wide project to reduce carbon emissions and extract more value from natural gas fields without undertaking more drilling.

Juliet’s idea is to optimise every single molecule of gas so that nothing goes to waste. Whether it is emissions, using too much power or an upset in the plant – she intends to eliminate all of that. By integrating operations and assessing what the rest of the country was doing, Juliet led her team to make better decisions on where and when gas was needed, adding a level of value that is world-class.

It was an ambitious challenge, and the results significantly surpassed expectations, with the delivery of an Integrated Operations Centre – a New Zealand first for the optimal use of energy resources and emissions reduction.

“Inherently, we were improving safety, reducing the environmental footprint and adding dollars to the bottom line. You end up optimising the whole system,” says Juliet.

Juliet (MEngNZ) began her career as a senior wireline field engineer for Schlumberger, working on oil rigs off the coast of Australia and in the North Sea. Her role involved determining whether drilling new boreholes had struck oil or gas or if they were drilling into nothing – a highly pressured job with short turnaround times. Juliet recalls spending months at a time on rigs, some where she was the only woman. Resilience is needed to handle the harsh weather conditions of waves crashing over rigs and horizontal snow while working outside in the North Sea.

“It took a lot of work to earn the respect of the men, or even get them to talk to you, but that’s the journey,” says Juliet. “I would go out to the rig with about eight guys that generally I had never worked with before, but I was the lead engineer running the job and had to earn their respect instantly. It cut a skill set that has served me throughout the rest of my career and built me as a leader.”

Those leadership skills contributed to the success of Juliet’s more recent projects in Aotearoa’s energy sector, in production optimisation and lowering natural gas supply emissions.

The New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards entries close 9 March 2022. 
Visit https://www.energyawards.co.nz/enter to request entry forms.