Rabat – Africashapers, an African online news outlet, has featured Amina Benkhadra, Director General of Morocco’s Hydrocarbons and Mining Office (ONYHM) on its list of “100 Outstanding Female Executives in the Oil and Gas Industry” in 2021.
The list ranks women in senior positions in the oil and gas industry across Africa who have contributed to the development of the industry.
Amina Benkhadra started her career in the energy sector as head of the mining studies department at Morocco’s Mining Research Office (OMRP) in 1982. She was promoted later to head of the mining research department.
Benkhadra is also a board member of a number of mining companies that are partners or subsidiaries of Morocco’s ONYHM. She has been filling the position of an executive member of the board of directors of the National Office of Oil Research and Exploitation ONAREP since 2000.
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Aside from working in the private and public sector, Benkhadra also had a strong run in Moroccan politics, serving as Morocco’s Minister of Energy, Mines, Water, and the Environment from 2007 to 2012.
Prior to her appointment as minister, Benkhadra served as Secretary of State in Charge of developing the country’s mining sector between 1997 and 1998.
The ONHYM general director holds a civil engineering degree from France’s Ecole des Mines de Nancy, a Ph.D. in engineering sciences and mining technologies, and a management degree from Columbia University.
Placing no particular importance on the ranking itself, the list of the outstanding female executives in the African oil and gas industry aims to value the contribution of women in senior positions and to shed light on the not-so-level playing field of the industry.
Women make up only 15% of the workforce in the global oil and gas industry, with the percentage plummeting even lower among senior positions, according to a 2020 Mckinsey report.
