People in the industry

Tullow Oil Plc, appointed Dorothy Thompson as independent non-executive director and chair-designate of Tullow. It is anticipated that Thompson will succeed Aidan Heavey, Tullow’s current chairman and founder, as chair, at the conclusion of the board meeting scheduled for third-quarter 2018. Aidan will retire from the board at the same time. Thompson served for 12 years as CEO of Drax Group Plc, until the end of 2017. Thompson holds BS and MS degrees in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Xodus appointed Simon Allison as operations director for the APAC region. Allison will be responsible for management of the group’s office, including business development and growing strategic new markets. Having previously been Xodus’ general manager in Scotland, he maintains an active technical role in projects, including project management. Allison has worked in the oil and gas industry for 20+ years after graduating with honors in chemical engineering from the University of Melbourne. 

Petrofac has appointed Allan Cockriel as CIO. Cockriel joined Petrofac from GE, where he was most recently CIO for GE Power/Alstom, as well as its global sales and operational planning function. Cockriel has a diverse career background, across several multi-billion-dollar businesses in multiple geographies during his 14 years with GE.

EnerMech has announced two key appointments. Mark Duncan, has been named senior V.P. of the Americas region, based in Houston. Previously, Duncan has worked in a variety of international management roles for Bristow Group, ABB, Halliburton, KBR and Subsea7. Colin Smith has joined the Aberdeen headquarters as technical director. With 35+ years’ industry experience in senior technical and management roles with KBR, Amec, CNR and Marathon Oil, he will be responsible for driving the expansion of the electrical & instrumentation division.

Chevron Corporation named David Payne corporate V.P. of HES. Payne is currently V.P. of Chevron’s Drilling and Completions organization. He succeeds Wes Lohec, who has elected to retire from Chevron after 37 years’ service. In Payne’s  new role, he will be responsible for strategic planning and issues management, compliance assurance, and emergency response. He will also oversee Chevron’s Environmental Management Company. Payne graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1981 with a BS degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering.

BCCK Holding Company has appointed Kevin J. Blount as COO. Blount will be involved in all aspects of BCCK. He was appointed V.P. of corporate development at BCCK in August 2017, after spending 30+ years with Chart Industries in a variety of senior management roles.

Wellsite Fishing and Rental Services has appointed Ryan Henderson as its new executive V.P. Based in Houston, Henderson has been serving as Wellsite’s V.P. of sales and marketing since October 2017. He joined Wellsite after 20+ years’ active service in the U.S. Army and 18+ years’ oil and gas experience in drilling, completions and production, in a variety of engineering and sales roles. He holds a BS degree in industrial technology and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Apache Corporation has named Ben C. Rodgers as V.P., Treasury. He will lead the treasury department and have global oversight over the company’s capital structure analysis, financing, risk insurance, banking policy, cash and liquidity management. Rodgers joins Apache from EIG Global Energy Partners, where he served as senior V.P. and led an investment team, in North America. Rodgers holds an MBA in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS degree in finance from Texas A&M University. In addition, Apache said that Kregg Olson, executive V.P. corporate reservoir engineering, plans to retire during third-quarter 2018, after 26 years’ service with the company. Dave Pursell, currently senior V.P., planning and market fundamentals, will assume responsibility for the corporate reservoir engineering department upon Olson’s retirement. 

Petroplan Group announced the appointment of Philippa Barnes as its new CEO. Barnes is a highly qualified HR professional, with in-depth, strategic and operational management expertise, and nearly two decades of experience in the recruitment industry. In her previous roles at Petroplan, as people and client experience director and global HR director, Barnes has already played a leading role in developing solutions to meet the diverse, evolving requirements of key clients. 

READ Cased Hole Ltd. has appointed Mohd. Mansour Esreb, as new Middle East account manager, based in Doha, Qatar. Mansour will work with READ to drive new business opportunities and support the company’s existing relationships in the region. Mansour is a highly experienced engineer with in-depth knowledge of the Middle East. He has led engineering projects for some of the region’s major operators and has worked in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

NextDecade Corporation announced that James MacTaggart will join the company as senior V.P., LNG Marketing, Asia, and will be based in Singapore. Previously, MacTaggart served 20+ years with Shell in marketing and trading positions in Asia and the Middle East. He completed his undergraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and holds an MBA with distinction from Cass Business School.

Morten Kelstrup will take on the new role as chief commercial and innovation officer, and will lead the newly established joint commercial and innovation function in Maersk Drilling. Kelstrup has been serving as managing director of Maersk Oil UK, and was previously managing director of Maersk Oil Kazakhstan and head of commercial in Maersk Oil.

Having served as chairman of the board of Polarcus Limited, since the company’s inception in 2008, Peter Rigg will be retiring with effect from the AGM in second-quarter 2018. Michael Mannering has been nominated to succeed Rigg as chairman.  Mannering is an experienced chairman and non-executive director, with a long career in oilfield services, including senior corporate and chairman positions at Schlumberguer and Songa offshore. He has a BS degree (First Class) in mechanical engineering from the University of Southampton. 

BiSN has appointed Paul Braiden as operations manager. Braiden brings 20+ years’ experience to the company and will be responsible for managing worldwide field operations. This ranges from overseeing personnel and logistic resources, to ensuring that operations in the field are completed safely and to the highest quality. With an extensive background in operations management, Braiden has worked in various roles throughout his career with Schlumberger, Welltec and DynaEnergetics.