DEA Scoops Up Engie CEO To Lead Company

DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG has appointed Maria Moraeus Hanssen as its new CEO and chairman of the management board effective January 2018, the company said.

Hanssen, who currently serves as CEO of Engie’s E&P business, will succeed Thomas Rappuhn, who has served 30 years at DEA, including eight years as CEO.

Hanssen is credited for leading a strategic transformation at Engie’s E&P business, including a portfolio restructuring the portfolio, improving profitability and applying new technology among other accomplishments, according to DEA.

Having trained as a reservoir engineer and petroleum economist, Hanssen’s extensive oil and gas industry experience includes positions served at Hydro (later acquired by Statoil), Statoil, Aker Group (now Aker BP) and GDF Suez (now Engie).

Expro Secures Repsol Well Services Contract

U.K.-headquartered Expro has won an $8 million master services agreement with Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Ltd. for well services across its U.K. North Sea assets, according to a news release.

The five-year contract, which includes extension options, covers well intervention services for production assurance and enhancement, well integrity, subsea, reservoir and decommissioning and abandonment applications.

Expro said the wireline and cased hole logging services also include personnel to supervise offshore intervention activity, including slickline and electric line conveyance, memory and real-time cased-hole logging, explosive and perforating services, downhole cameras, gauges and sampling.

McDermott Adds SBM Offshore Executive To Board

Philippe Barril, who has served as COO of SBM Offshore since March 2015, has been appointed to McDermott International’s board of directors effective Sept. 1, the company said.

With more than 25 years of experience in the offshore oil and gas construction industry, Barril has also served in various roles at Technip. These have included president and COO, senior vice president of the offshore segment and senior vice president of the offshore and onshore product lines and technologies.

NPD Gets New Exploration Director

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has a new exploration director: Torgeir Stordal, who has worked for Shell since 1989.

Stordal took on the new role Sept. 1 and replaced Sissel Eriksen, who left the NPD’s management team after completing her rotation. She served as exploration director since September 2007, the NPD said.

At Shell, Stordal has worked as a geophysicist and geologist as well as exploration manager in Norske Shell.

Well-Safe Adds To Management Team

Jim Christie has joined Well-Safe Solutions as the company’s director of programs. The company also announced Alan Cormack as its finance director.

Christie is a former decommissioning head for OGA where he developed the U.K. decommissioning strategy working with industry and the government. His experience also has included time spent as global decommissioning projects manager for Houston-based Marathon Oil.

Cormack joins Well-Safe from Raeburn Recruitment, where he was head of finance, following nearly a decade at finance director for Nautronix, Well-Safe said.

The recently launched specialist well abandonment company also said it is moving into an office at Hill of Rubislaw in Aberdeen.

Energy XXI Gulf Coast Appoints T.J. Thom As CFO

Energy XXI Gulf Coast Inc. appointed Tiffany J. (“T.J.”) Thom as its CFO, the Houston-based company said Aug. 24.

As a result of Thom’s appointment, which became effective Aug. 28, Hugh Menown has resigned as executive vice president, chief accounting officer and interim CFO to pursue other interests, the release said. Menown has agreed to serve as an advisor to Energy XXI during a transition period.

Thom has more than 20 years of financial and operational experience in the energy industry, primarily offshore Gulf of Mexico operations, according to the company press release. Most recently, she served as the CFO of KLR Energy Acquisition Corp. from January 2015 until April when it combined with Tema Oil and Gas Co. to form Rosehill Resources Inc.

In addition, Thom served in positions at EPL Oil & Gas Inc., Energy XXI Ltd., Exxon Production Co. and ExxonMobil Corp as well as a director for Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. and Yates Petroleum Corp.

James Swent Named CEO At Paragon Offshore

Paragon Offshore Ltd. said Aug 25 that James (“Jay”) Swent III, Paragon’s current chairman of the board of directors, has been named president and CEO following a comprehensive executive search process.

Swent’s career includes more than a decade of experience in the offshore drilling industry including his most recent role as executive vice president at ENSCO Plc. He will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors; however, in keeping with best practices for corporate governance, Paragon will maintain separation between the roles of CEO and chairman of the board. Effective immediately, current board member George Sandison will become chairman. Paragon’s board size will remain at six members.

Swent assumes the role from Dean E. Taylor, who has served as Paragon’s Interim president and CEO since November.

KrisEnergy Appoints Tang As New CEO

KrisEnergy Ltd. has named Kelvin Tang, who currently serves as COO and president of the company’s Cambodian operations, as the new CEO. The change takes effect Sept. 1, according to a news release.

Tang will replace interim CEO Jeffrey S. MacDonald, who is resigning from the CEO and board executive director roles effective Aug. 31.

“Kelvin has been an instrumental member of senior management since KrisEnergy was established in 2009 and led our negotiations with the Cambodian government regarding the Block A petroleum agreement, which was signed on Aug. 23, 2017,” Tan Ek Kia, KrisEnergy’s nonexecutive chairman, said in the release. “The Block A agreement is significant for Cambodia and for KrisEnergy.”

Tang has been working in the upstream oil and gas industry since 2005 when he joined Pearl Energy Ltd. as general counsel and company secretary, the release said.

BHP Billiton Replaces Two Directors In Board Shake-up

Global miner BHP Billiton unveiled a board shake-up where controversial director Grant King will step down just six months after his appointment with the company amid oil investments concerns, BHP said on Aug. 23.

King, former CEO of Origin Energy, was once tipped to succeed Jac Nasser as chairman of the world’s biggest mining company, but was passed over earlier this year for fellow board member Ken MacKenzie.

“Owing to concerns expressed by some investors, Grant King has decided that he will not stand for election at the 2017 annual general meetings of BHP and will retire from the board on August 31,” Nasser said.

BHP is under pressure from investors led by hedge funds, Elliott Management and Tribeca Investment Partners, to rethink its investment in oil and boost shareholder returns. The company said on Aug. 22 it would exit its underperforming U.S. shale oil and gas assets.

In addition, another director, Malcolm Brinded will not to stand for re-election as a non-executive director, BHP said.

The company named Terry Bowen, a finance director for Australian retail and mining conglomerate Wesfarmers Ltd., and John Mogford, a former BP executive, as the two new independent non-executive directors. The pair will take up their roles on Oct. 1.

Global Marine Group Extends Into Port Of Blyth

Offshore engineering service provider Global Marine Group (GMG) has added the Port of Blyth, Northumberland, to its U.K. operations base, the company said.

Calling the port a “major support base for UK offshore energy projects,” GMG said its CWind offshore wind business unit and Global Marine, which provides fiber-optic cable solutions, will operate from the port.

Adding the port to its U.K. footprint means the company aims to “offer regionally focused support, resulting in faster mobilization, greater flexibility and enhanced response times for customers.”

Bourbon Sees Brighter Outlook After 1H Profit Slump

Bourbon said on Sept. 7 that oil companies are restarting projects, which should help its business pick up after profits fell sharply in the first half.

Weak oil prices, which are more than 50% lower than 2014 highs, have prompted oil companies to cut back on spending and oil services companies have seen sharply declining profits. However, Bourbon said new projects were going ahead, citing Qatar’s plan to raise LNG output by 30% and French oil major Total’s return to Iran.

“The fact that clients earn money, are finding room for maneuver, can invest with oil at $50 means that this situation will generate business for us,” CEO Jacques de Chateauvieux said during a Sept. 7 call with journalists.

Adjusted core profit (EBITDA) for the first half fell 55.7% year-on-year to about $71.4 million due to a continuing freeze in investment by oil companies. The average utilization rate for the company’s vessels fell 13 percentage points in the first half to 53.8%.

The company said that it expects utilization rates to stabilize in the subsea and crew boats segments.

EnQuest Profits Slide On Slower Kraken Oil Field Ramp-up

EnQuest on Sept. 7 reported a sharp drop in first-half profits on lower production and delays in ramping up its flagship Kraken oil field.

EnQuest kept its previous full-year production guidance, which calls for a fall of as much as 18% to 10% above or below its output in the first half of the year of 37,015 boe/d.

The company reduced its expected capex this year to the lower end of previous guidance at $375 million to $400 million. Spending on Kraken was expected to be lower by $100 million, bringing the project’s cost to $2.4 billion, about 25% below its original budget in 2013.

The London-listed company’s shares have dropped sharply since it forecast last month the fall in output due to delays in bringing Kraken’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel into operation. Other operational issues and the lack of recent drilling in other fields will also affect production, the company said.

EnQuest is confident it will resolve issues related to Kraken, which started production in June, by the end of the year and reach a production plateau of 50,000 boe/d in first-half 2018, CEO Amjad Bseisu said in an interview. “Kraken is a complex system ... so we are not getting the efficiencies that we had hoped for but I think things are improving now,” Bseisu said, adding that Kraken’s reservoir and subsea equipment was performing according to expectations.

The first cargo of crude from the heavy-oil field is expected to load next week.

Kraken is one of a string of new North Sea fields that have started producing in recent months, heralding a small revival in the mature basin despite persistently weak oil prices.

EnQuest’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for first-half 2017 fell to $151 million from $243 million a year earlier, broadly in line with the $153 million expected by analysts polled by Reuters.

—Staff & Reuters Reports

Offshore