John Hofmeister has been appointed chairman of Houston-based Erin Energy Corp. He previously served as president of Shell Oil Co. from 2005 to 2008 (OGJ Online, Mar. 17, 2008).
The move is accompanied by the elevation of Segun Omidele, currently Erin Energy’s chief operating officer since last year (OGJ Online, Sept. 15, 2015), to the position of chief executive officer.
Omidele has been with the Erin Energy since 2011. He also served as senior vice-president for exploration and production for Allied Energy Corp. from 2008 to 2011. Allied Energy was a unit of CAMAC Energy Inc., the predecessor of Erin Energy.
Prior to Allied Energy, Omidele held various senior technical and management positions with Shell Oil units in Nigeria, the UK, and the US for more than 28 years.
Both changes will be effective the day immediately following the firm’s annual meeting of shareholders, expected to take place in late-May when current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kase Lawal retires as an officer and director.
“As part of our ongoing strategy, the roles of chairman and CEO are to be separated as we continue applying global standards to our corporate governance and ensuring complete independence of the board,” explained Lawal.
Erin Energy has 9 licenses across 4 countries covering an area of 40,000 sq km, including current production and other exploration projects offshore Nigeria (OGJ Online, June 18, 2015); exploration licenses offshore Ghana (OGJ Online, Oct. 6, 2015), and offshore Gambia (OGJ Online, May 15, 2015); and both offshore and onshore Kenya (OGJ Online, Aug. 24, 2015).
