Freeport-McMoRan restructures oil, gas division

April 6, 2016
Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas (FMOG), a subsidiary of Phoenix-based mining firm Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FMI), is being restructured as an operating division of FMI.

Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas (FMOG), a subsidiary of Phoenix-based mining firm Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FMI), is being restructured as an operating division of FMI.

The move, which had been under consideration since at least last year (OGJ Online, Oct. 6, 2015), will result in the elimination of FMOG executive management roles and the integration of financial and administrative roles with FMI corporate functions.

Mark Kidder has been named FMOG executive vice-president, operations, and will lead the division’s operating team. Kidder previously served as vice-president, operations, and has 36 years of operational experience in the offshore and onshore upstream energy industry, including 13 years with FMOG and its predecessor.

Leaving the company are Jim Flores, FMOG chief executive officer; Doss Bourgeois, president and chief operating officer; Winston Talbert, executive vice-president and chief financial officer; and John Wombwell, executive vice-president and general counsel.

This team has served as executive management for the FMOG organization since FMI’s acquisition of Plains Exploration Co. in 2013 (OGJ Online, May 21, 2013).

“The changes are being undertaken to reduce costs, streamline functions, and to enhance capital allocation across [FMI]’s global business in a manner consistent with [FMI]’s debt reduction initiatives,” the firm said.

“Further steps will be taken to reduce costs and capital expenditures, and [FMI] will continue to evaluate potential transactions for the sale of certain assets of [FMOG],” it added.

FMI’s US oil and gas assets include positions in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, onshore and offshore California, in the Haynesville shale, and in the Inboard Lower Tertiary-Cretaceous gas trend onshore South Louisiana.