Sterling Energy Plc appointed Eskil Jersing as CEO and a director, the company said March 23. The appointment is effective immediately.

Jersing has 29 years’ experience in exploration, new ventures, strategy planning and business development in the North Sea, deepwater GoM, Brazil, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australasia, the London-based company said.

Most recently, he was head of new ventures and co-head of M&A at Petrobras in Rotterdam. He began his career in 1985 as a field seismologist in Papua New Guinea with SSL. He has worked for Enterprise Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS-A, RDS-B), Marathon Oil and Apache Corp. (NYSE: APC).

Eskil holds a bachelor’s degree from University College Cardiff and a master’s degree from Imperial College London.

Alastair Beardsall, who is currently interim CEO, will continue as executive chairman, the company added.