Oil rigs in stormy seas, big pipes, deserts, unstable third-world countries: just a few of the stereotypes that flit into the mind when someone says “oil and gas”. What other preconceptions are there about the industry? Are they true?

The oil and gas are running out.
“There’s this idea that the UK imports all its gas from Russia, but in the North Sea we’ve got decades left to go,” says Malcolm Webb, the chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, the industry’s representative body. “Reliance on energy and therefore on oil and gas is only going to increase and it’s vital that we have supplies.”

It’s all about men in hard hats.
“There are also women in hard hats,” says Annette Williams, the director of the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. The majority of engineers in the sector are male, but the industry is aware of the imbalance. Organisations such as Williams’s exist to help employers to make their work environments more attractive to women and to encourage more girls to take science subjects at school.

It’s never going to change.
Zoe Cairns, a principal environmental consultant at the consultancy Xodus, says that there are more men than women in the industry in general, but that among younger recruits the balance is changing. “In fact, the environmental field is female-dominated. At Xodus there are 22 of us – and about one third are male,” she says.

You have to work on an oil rig.
Of about 400,000 employees in the UK industry, only 30,000 are employed on the rigs. And for some people who do work offshore the lifestyle suits them. “You also get to be at home for long periods of time,” Williams says.

You have to be an engineer.
The core industrial skills needed in the sector are engineering and geoscience, yes. But “we employ lawyers, financial people, creative people, marketing professionals and many environmentalists,” Webb says. “There’s a plethora of jobs.”

The industry is simply plundering the environment.
The efficient use of remaining reserves is crucial. “Without North Sea natural gas the UK couldn’t have come close to fulfilling its part of the Kyoto protocol. And we operate very cleanly offshore.” Cairns believes that she is making a difference: “The environment is core to the oil and gas business – it’s partly about public reputation.”

You end up having to work in dangerous, poor countries.
For some people, the opportunity to travel is the biggest attraction, Williams says. Whatever your opinion of the oil industry, Cairns insists that it’s not a case of the big companies going to poor countries and nicking all the oil. “When the big companies go in, most countries have to be 50 or 60 per cent stakeholders,” she says.

She has worked recently in Angola – not renowned for its stability. Isn’t environmental consultancy lower on the country’s list of priorities than, say, their forthcoming elections? “From an environmental point of view you can be accused of being patronising,” Cairns says, “but in Angola they’ve got quite young environmental regulation, so they’re looking to other countries to set their benchmarks.”

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO