GDF Suez Exploration and Production U.K. promoted Oonagh Werngren to the position of business manager for its external affairs and supply chain sector.

Werngren, a geologist with over 30 years of international experience, has been appointed in the post that will be based at the company’s operations center in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The position has been created as the operator pursues an ambitious growth strategy as major North Sea projects, including Cygnus and Juliet, approach sanction in 2012.

Werngren joins from the GDF Suez head office in Paris, France, where she had been head of developments for exploration and development since 2010. Previously, she held a number of senior positions with BP, including head of technology of the North Sea. She also spent two years in Alaska before being appointed as drilling manager of the North Sea and becoming the first woman to head up drilling programs in the U.K., Norway and the Netherlands, said GDF Suez.

Between 2007-11, Werngren was also a non-executive director of industry-funded technology development body ITF.

Jean-Claude Perdigues, managing director of GDF Suez, said, “Our Cygnus and Juliet projects are moving towards sanction and production, and Werngren’s knowledge and experience will be of immense benefit as we manage that process.”