People in the industry

Chevron Corporation elected Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., to its board of directors, effective Jan. 15. He will serve on the company’s Board Nominating and Governance Committee and Public Policy Committee. Huntsman was a candidate for the 2012 Republican nomination for U.S. president. He served as U.S. ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011, and governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009. Prior to his election as governor, Huntsman filled several governmental appointments. He was affiliated with the Huntsman Corporation, which he first joined in 1983, serving in various capacities, most recently as vice chairman, until his resignation in 2005. He already is a director on several other corporate boards.

Marathon Oil’s board of directors has elected Morris R. Clark, assistant treasurer, to the position of V.P. and treasurer, effective Jan. 1. Clark succeeds Michael K. Stewart, in his role as treasurer, who has elected to retire after 28 years of service. Clark will continue to office in Houston and report to John R. “J.R.” Sult, Marathon’s executive V.P. and CFO.

Director General Bente Nyland will continue as head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) for another six-year term, effective Jan. 1. Nyland was appointed director general of the NPD in 2007. She joined the directorate in 1984, and became a member of the management team in 2000. Nyland began her career as an exploration geologist at Statoil.

Effective Jan. 1, Pam Daley and Martin Ferguson will join BG Group’s board as non-executive directors. Additionally, Dr. John Hood will succeed Baroness Hogg as senior independent director. Daley is senior V.P. and senior advisor to the chairman at GE, and Ferguson is a former Australian Minister for Resources and Energy. Baroness Hogg will remain a non-executive director. Dr. Hood has been a non-executive director of the group since 2007.

Oil States International has promoted Bradley Dodson, senior V.P., CFO and treasurer of Oil States, to serve as the Accommodations business’ president and CEO, upon completion of the previously-announced plan to spin-off that business unit. Dodson will be joined by Ron Green, president of PTI Group Inc., and Peter McCann, managing director of The MAC. 

DeepOcean, a subsidiary of DeepOcean Group, has appointed John Baxter as director of SURF. Baxter, whose appointment took effect Nov. 1, has 24 years of international oil and gas contracting experience. He joins from DOF Subsea Norway, where he served as executive V.P. for business acquisition.

Pat Nelson has joined PanTerra Resource Corp.’s board of directors. Nelson served for 15 years as an elected member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly, where she held office as Minister of Energy and Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, as well as Minister of Government Services and Minister of Finance.

Statoil has appointed Sigve Nylund as executive V.P. for Development and Production Norway. Nylund assumed his new responsibilities on Jan. 1, and reports to CEO Helge Lund. He succeeds Øystein Michelsen, who has been appointed country manager in Tanzania. Previously, Nylund was senior V.P., Processing and Manufacturing at Statoil.

Michael Economides, energy expert and petroleum engineering professor at the University of Houston, died Nov. 30 of a heart attack on an international flight at the age of 64. Dr. Economides was a professor at the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering. He died on a flight from Madrid to Chile. Dr. Economides served as an adviser to several national oil companies, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Eni. He was the blunt-spoken author of several books on energy and geopolitics, including The Color of Oil. Dr. Economides moved to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar at the age of 19 from Cyprus. He received his doctorate from Stanford University in 1984.

ARKeX has appointed Chris Anderson as its new executive V.P. for the company’s Multi-Client division. Anderson brings a wealth of industry experience to the role, having spent the last seven year at PGS, where he was responsible for commercialization of the company’s EM offering. He joins ARKeX to expand the company’s multi-client Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (FTG) data library portfolio.

After three years leading Dana Petroleum, Dr. Marcus Richards has stepped down as group chief executive. Richards joined the company following its takeover by the Korea National Oil Corporation in 2010. Graham Scotton (above), Dana’s COO, has become the company’s acting group chief executive.

Tullow Oil announced that David Bamford, senior independent director and chairman of the Remuneration Committee, will retire from the board on April 30, 2014, after more than nine years of service. From that date, Ann Grant will take over as the senior independent director, and Jeremy Wilson will take over as chairman of the Remuneration Committee. Graham Martin will relinquish his duties as general counsel, effective Jan. 1. Peter Sloan, deputy general counsel since 2011, will be promoted to general counsel.

Deep Casing Tools has appointed Jason Henry and Magnus Wardle as V.P.s of business development and technology, respectively. Henry joined Baker Hughes in 1986, with operational and project management roles in Europe. Later, he joined the Baker Hughes Global Leadership group in Houston, as director of global marketing and commercial excellence, and then moved to GE Oil & Gas as global sales director for the Downhole Technology Division. Wardle has more than 20 years of experience in various product development and technology management roles.

American Gilsonite Company has appointed David G. Gallagher as senior V.P., Commercial Operations. Gallagher has more than 30 years of experience in the oilfield service industry, holding executive-level positions at firms including Schlumberger, Carbo Ceramics and Baker Hughes Incorporated. 

Concho Resources has announced several management promotions. Joe Wright and Will Giraud, each formerly a senior V.P. of the company, have been promoted to executive V.P. Steve Guthrie, formerly V.P. of Texas, has been promoted to senior V.P. of Business Operations and Engineering. After serving in various operational and engineering positions with Henry Petroleum and Exxon Mobil, Guthrie joined Concho in 2004, and has held positions of increasing responsibility since that time. In addition, Clay Bateman, formerly an asset manager for the Southern Delaware basin, has been promoted to replace Guthrie as Texas V.P. 

Willbros Group has named Dan Hubbard as V.P., Tulsa Operations, Gas Processing. With this hire, the company officially enters the gas processing plant market. Based in Tulsa, Okla., Hubbard will lead the technical development of the company’s gas processing plant offerings. As part of the company’s new service offerings, Hubbard has designed a standardized, modular cryogenic plant that is designed for the hydrocarbon mix and infrastructure found in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays.