CONTACT ENERGY has said its next chief executive will be David Hunt – a long-time energy executive who is currently corporate development executive manager with Contact's parent company, Origin Energy.
Hunt will take over from retiring Contact chief Steve Barrett in October when Barrett returned to his native United States.
Hunt has worked in the New Zealand energy sector for more than 10 years. Before shifting to Sydney last year to be part of Origin's executive team, he had worked at Contact Energy from 1996 in a range of corporate, business development and strategy roles.
Barrett’s total salary package, including remuneration and other benefits, was NZ$1.047 million. Hunt’s starting base salary is NZ$550,000 and he will be eligible for short-term and long-term incentive payments, each up to 50% of base salary, subject to the achievement of financial and non-financial objectives for the year.
OILEX NL has appointed Ray Barnes to its board as an executive technical director. Barnes is currently a director of Voyager Energy pending completion of their merger with Arc Energy. Arc announced on Friday that all Voyager staff had accepted redundancies with the exception of managing director John Begg who would work for Arc as a consultant.
“Barnes is well known and highly regarded in the Australian oil and gas, exploration and production industry,” Oilex said.
“He has a wide range of experience and knowledge gained over 33 years, coupled with an outstanding record of achievement measured by commercial oil and gas discoveries in Australia and internationally. His experience and skills in both exploration and general management will be particularly beneficial to Oilex during the current phase of anticipated rapid growth.”
Barnes has worked in Europe, North and South America, South East Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Recent appointments include technical director at Voyager Energy where he was actively involved in technical evaluations of projects as well as having board responsibilities, and as exploration manager for Apache Energy based in Perth.
Barnes is to assist the board in its dual objectives of implementing its exploration and growth strategy in Australia and India. This will include development work programs in existing permits to maximise the chances of exploration success, including EPP 27 in the Otway Basin and the company’s Surat and Eromanga Basin permits.
As part of this appointment, an incentive and performance option package is to be granted to Barnes, subject to shareholder approval, to issue 3 million options to acquire shares at 40, 50 and 80 cents per share after various qualifying periods ranging from 1, 2 and 3 years service.
Meanwhile, Simon Robertson has resigned as a director of Oilex, but will continue as the company’s chief financial officer.
BLACK ROCK OIL & GAS PLC has appointed Dr John Malcolm as technical director.
Malcolm has 25 years commercial experience in the exploration and production industry, following a period in academic research and post-graduate education. This has included asset evaluation and project management, as well as board-level strategic and operational direction.
He is currently managing director of ES Information & Consultancy Ltd, which specialises in petroleum exploration and production consultancy, project management and asset promotion for many clients, including major independent companies.
Ivan Burgess, managing director of Black Rock Oil & Gas Plc said Malcom’s technical expertise would boost Black Rock's in-house capability to evaluate a range of upstream deals and acquisitions in several locations around the world.
CALTEX AUSTRALIA LTD has approved the appointment of Brant Fish as an alternate director for Peter Wissel. Fish also serves as an alternate director for Bill Hauschildt and previously served as an alternate director for Mitch Rubinstein.
Fish serves as general manager of supply optimization, Asia Pacific with Chevron USA, based in Singapore. In this role he has accountability for overall earnings and optimisation across the Asia Pacific downstream supply chain – from refinery crude supply to marketing sales.
PACRIM ENERGY LTD has appointed Frank Petruzzelli has been appointed as the new local agent for Australia and the company has also relocated its registered office. New details are as follows:
Registered office.
Pacrim Energy Ltd
566 Elizabeth Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Tel: 03 9349 1488
Fax: 03 94349 1186.
Local agent:
Frank Petruzzelli
MDB Coralton Pty Ltd
566Elizabeth Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Tel: 03 9349 1488
Fax: 03 9349 1186
The principal office remains unchanged:
Principle Office:
PO Box 63
Wendouree
Victoria 3355
Australia
523 Ligar Street
BALLARAT VIC 3350
Tel: +61 3 5333 3200
Fax: + 61 3 5333 3650
RPS GROUP PLC acquires ECL GROUP LTD. Effective from September 15, ECL has become part of the Energy Division of RPS. The combined group will operate on a worldwide basis from regional offices in the USA, Canada, Europe, South East Asia and Australia. The management teams of both organisations will remain with the businesses.
The complementary nature of the services provided across the two organisations and the good fit in the geographical footprint of each business would boost the new group’s services throughout the world, RPS Energy said in a statement.
“This move, which is in response to developing market opportunities within the oil and gas consulting sector, adds significant additional capability into RPS Energy,” the company said.
“It provides the combined group with the capability and infrastructure to deliver an added range and quality service to both existing and new clients.
"Combining the organisations provides opportunities for improving standards and training in the operational aspects of the business and delivers a broader range of technical services in geosciences, engineering and project management.”
