I THINK IT’S A REAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.

eight-year, US$230 billion plan to resuscitate Exxon.

She’s orchestrating a big expansion of the company’s rig fleet in the region from 24 in March to 30 by the end of the year. If successful, that’ll make Exxon the region’s top driller.

“We have the ability if the market changes, upwards or downwards, either to pick up rigs rapidly or lay down rigs if we need to,” Ortwein said. “It adds another dimension to our portfolio.”

The oil and gas industry is still mostly a man’s world but was even more so in the 1980s when Ortwein began her career. That didn’t put her off when she graduated from the University of Texas as a civil engineer.

“I interviewed with a lot of different industries, but I found the oil and gas industry “to ensure we are accessing the entire talent pool,” she said.

There have been some notable recent successes. elevated Vicki Hollub to CEO in April 2016, while and both have women CFOs. BP Plc and Shell recently appointed women to lead their U.S. businesses.

Efforts to boost female participation in the industry rely heavily on high-profile executives like Ortwein because they exemplify how women can rise to the top in male-dominated industries, said Katie Mehnert, founder of Houston-based Pink Petro, which promotes gender diversity.

“The first step is to get women in these positions but then we need to socialize it, make it normal,” Mehnert said. “Telling their stories creates a culture of transformation.”

Ortwein was promoted to oversee XTO when oil markets were just starting to recover from the worst crash in a generation. At the time, American crude was trading for about US$46 a barrel and Exxon’s U.S. oil and gas wells were in the midst of a twoyear run of negative returns.

Now oil is close to US$68 a barrel and production from the Permian has doubled to 3 million barrels a day, which is more than OPEC-member Kuwait. Such is the importance of the field to Exxon that it spent almost US$6 billion buying additional drilling rights last year.

The plan is to triple Exxon’s shale production to almost 800,000 barrels a day by 2025, which would be a fifth of the company’s output today. To do that, Ortwein is convinced the XTO will have to incorporate Exxon’s traditional strengths of project management, technology and long-term planning, while preserving its fastpaced no-frills culture.

An example: The Permian’s production has risen so fast that pipeline capacity is scarce, forcing some producers to take lower prices for their oil. To combat this, Ortwein wants to utilize Exxon’s vast Texas infrastructure.

“Connecting the Permian production through the midstream, to the downstream, and chemical gives us a value chain advantage,” she said. “I think it’s a real competitive advantage.”

Ortwein’s rivals aren’t resting easy. Blending XTO’s shale operation into the rest of Exxon will make it a more formidable competitor, said Greg Guidry, the executive vice president who runs Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s shale business.

“I’m much more concerned of XTO as a competitor as being a full part of Exxon than I was when they were separate,” Guidry said. “No question about it.”