BASF and LetterOne revealed on Nov. 6 their agreement to appoint Paul Smith as CFO and member of the management board of Wintershall DEA.

The appointment will take effect on closing of the merger of Wintershall and DEA, which is expected in the first half of 2019 and is still subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Paul Smith has over 25 years of extensive international experience in the oil and gas industry having worked for Vesta Energy, Talisman Energy, and BP, and having held positions in Calgary, Trinidad and Tobago, London, Aberdeen and Russia.

For the last two years Smith has been the CFO and executive vice president of corporate development at Vesta Energy, a private oil and gas company based in Calgary.

Prior to Vesta he was the CFO of Talisman Energy, a Calgary-based international independent with operations in over 20 countries. During his tenure he led the strategic review process for Talisman Energy, which culminated in the sale of the company to Repsol. Before becoming CFO, he was accountable for Talisman’s North American operations, a business producing 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d) with 1,300 employees.

For the first 15 years of his career, Smith was employed in a variety of commercial, finance and operational leadership roles at BP. These include senior vice president West Siberia at TNK-BP, business unit leader of BP’s North Sea activity, CFO of BP’s business in Trinidad and Tobago, and member of the team appointed to lead the integration of BP and Amoco.

“I am tremendously excited to be joining Wintershall DEA and to be part of the creation of the largest independent exploration and production company in Europe,” Smith said.

Wintershall DEA will have exploration and production activity in 13 countries across Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. The combined business would have had pro-forma production of approximately 575,000 boe/d in 2017, almost 70% of which comes from natural gas. Production is expected to rise to between 750,000 boe/d and 800,000 boe/d in early 2020 as the company executes its business plan.