Nelia Mazula is nothing short of a visionary in the oil industry.

The Houston-based engineer immigrated to the US at a young age from her native Mozambique. After demonstrating her interest in science, through the guidance of one of her teachers, she visited a STEM camp that fueled her interest in the world of exploration. After earning her a degree in chemical engineering at Arizona State University, she was a young, hungry graduate eager to put into practice all that she had learned in her own country. Her first endeavor in a natural gas project would later stimulate her interest in the oil and gas industry as it is a very promising sector in Mozambique. In 2017, the extractive sector contributed 6.8 percent of the GDP. The extraction of natural gas is believed to be one of the key industries that could greatly improve Mozambique’s industry. In exploring the different regions of the country, she herself realized how profitable the oil and gas industry could be as Mozambique is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world but one of the richest in resources.

“I never thought something I did could be so impactful and that just gave me a lot of respect for the industry and what it does in terms of transformation,” she revealed in an interview for the Houston Chronicle. She would go on to work as process engineer at the National Hydrocarbon Company (Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos de Moçambique in Portuguese), where she was responsible for production facility project commissioning activities for Temane/Pande field oil and gas central processing facility. She worked there for about 4 years before settling back in the US.

As a Black African female engineer, she understands the challenges that she may face and the privilege she now possesses. Looking back at the beginning of her career, she would have projects in South Africa — a country that had only broken out of apartheid. “It did not escape me that only a few years before I would not have been allowed on this trip in South Africa because of my race,” she explained in her profile for OILWOMAN Magazine.

Mazula today recognizes her own country, which had only gained independence from Portugal in 1975, was far ahead of its time in terms of female leadership. Mozambique is known to have had women in positions of power in male-dominated industries. Looking back on the history of Mozambique, this does not come as a surprise as many who participated in the liberation of the nation including Josina Machel, the first lady at the time, were women. In conversations with her mentor, Espearança Bias, she now realizes that she too is an inspiration for the next generation of women.

Looking back at the beginning of her career she would never have imagined herself to be a software engineer. Upon returning to Houston, she received an offer to work at Siemens. It all seemed to come together for her as she was looking for a change in her career. She went to work for the company for almost 8 years, first as project engineer and account manager, to later being promoted to product solutions manager and held a number of key positions in VRcontext, a software start-up company that was later acquired by Siemens.

She then moved to broader horizons as a senior GTN strategy consultant at Dassault Systèmes where she worked for about 5 years. During that time, she worked on a project with the intention “to develop vendor independent strategies and guidelines for owner/operators to extract value from engineering-grade 3D virtual experiences of process and refining assets in order to ensure reliable and optimized production in increasingly complex situations with growing resource constraints.” She was awarded the Fiatech Superior Technology Achievement Award for this project along with her involvement in other Fiatech projects and activities.

Today, Mazula is a global account manager at Siemens PLM Software. She now works with oil and gas executives to develop comprehensive digital and automation strategies, including product lifecycle management, automated construction processes, improved vendor collaboration, and turnkey digital plant solutions. She is also the holder of six patents and 18 publications. Along with being a software engineer, she also holds an MBA in international business from INSEAD.

Where before she was looking at the scope of natural gas extraction in Mozambique, today she is looking at the digitalization of the oil industry in Texas. “People don’t talk about what we do but there is a lot of technology in Houston,” Mazula continued in OILWOMAN Magazine. “I think it’s scary because we’re in COVID and the price of oil is low, but I think it’s a major opportunity for Houston to transition into being a digital hub for the world.”Outside the office, the engineer partakes in humanitarian work. In memory of Mazula’s late brother, she is currently working on a project to continue his influential work in the Houston community by teaching young children 3D CAD design. She is also a member of several boards including the Houston Community College,where she promotes innovative learning. She also sits as President of the Society of Women Engineers in the Houston Area Section, in which she was awarded the SWE Patent Recognition Award 2020.

For those following Mazula’s trajectory, she leaves all wondering what the future holds next for the inventor, and the world shall be ready to watch.