PetroQuest Energy Inc. (NYSE: PQ) said Nov. 24 that COO Todd Zehnder has resigned from the company.

The resignation is on the "best of terms" as Zehnder plans to continue his career outside of the oil and gas industry, according to the release.

Zehnder has been with the Lafayette, La.-based company for roughly 15 years. He has held various positions at the company including executive vice president, CFO and treasurer.

During Zehnder's time with the company, PetroQuest has expanded into numerous resource plays in the U.S., developing skills in horizontal drilling, fracking and producing tight sands and shales, said Charles T. Goodson, chairman, CEO and president.

"Today we are able to take advantage of that knowledge base primarily gained from the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma into the horizontal Cotton Valley which holds decades of defined development into these truly unique assets," Goodson said in a statement.

PetroQuest is engaged in the exploration, development, acquisition and production of oil and natural gas reserves in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

"As stated in our last conference call, we continue to remain focused on additional deleveraging options to build upon our success repaying all of our bank borrowings while driving down full cycle costs and increasing efficiencies to enable our assets to continue to compete with other resource plays in North America," Goodson said.