After serving as Oil Search's managing director for 25 years, Peter Botten is retiring and Keiran Wulff, president of Oil Search Alaska, is taking his place.
In an interview Wulff said Bruce Dingeman, currently chief operating officer of the Alaska business unit, will take over his role as president, and Matt Elmer, senior vice president of production and operations, will step up into the role of acting COO.
Wulff estimates that after the transition to his new role is complete, he will be spending about 20% of his time in Alaska.
What does this mean for Alaska?
"Alaska has a champion at the very top of the company," was Wulff's response, noting the leadership change has been internally progressing for about two years.
To ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities Wulff was appointed chief executive officer designate on Sept. 30. He will retain his Alaska responsibilities until mid-December to help oversee the company's entry into front-end engineering and design for the Pikka unit development, while also engaging with stakeholders and being involved in budget and planning for 2020 and beyond.
"The transition is a very measured … well thought out … process," he said.
Wulff will move from Anchorage to Sydney in mid-December, beginning his role as managing director and joining the Oil Search board on Feb. 25.
Botten, whose retirement was flagged at the May annual meeting, is one of the longest-serving CEOs in the ASX 200, Oil Search said. He will continue to be employed by Oil Search until Aug. 25.
"We have three fantastic projects we have to develop, including Alaska, and the beauty of it is we have the time to do so in an economically sound and environmentally sensitive manner," Wulff said.
Currently the Oil Search team in Alaska numbers 151, 36 contractors and 115 employees.
Wulff spoke highly of the experience (including North Slope) and qualifications of his Alaska leadership team, which includes Dingeman, Elmer, Senior Vice President External Affairs Joe Balash, Executive Advisor Cindy Bailey, Vice President Commercial and Strategy Patrick Flood, Vice President Exploration and New Ventures Joe Chmielowski, Vice President People and Culture Wanda Lewis, Vice President Finance and Project Services Jonathan Boyce, Senior Vice President Projects Bob Writt, Vice President Supply Chain and Ops Support Lea Souliotis, Senior Vice President Drilling and Completions Steve Robinson, Senior Vice President HSES James Robinson, Senior Vice President Subsurface Mark Ireland and IT & Data Management Manager Stephanie Kreibich.
- KAY CASHMAN
Editor's note: see story in Oct. 13 issue, available online Friday, Oct. 11 at www.PetroleumNews.com
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