PERSONNEL MOVES AND PROMOTIONS: El Paso Corp. shifts executive team after NYSE changes

Oct. 7, 2002
El Paso Corp. revealed that it would be shifting certain key members of its executive management team.

El Paso Corp. revealed that it would be shifting certain key members of its executive management team.

Ronald L. Kuehn has been elected to the position of lead director of El Paso's board. Kuehn's appointment, El Paso stated, was in response to an Aug. 1 proposal by the New York Stock Exchange, which ratified a group of proposals designed to "hold listed companies to a much higher standard of corporate governance," NYSE said. Among the list of proposals was a call for listed firms to carry a majority of independent members on their boards.

Formerly, Kuehn served as chairman, president, and CEO of Sonat Inc., Birmingham, Ala., before it was merged into El Paso.

El Paso's board also has elected H. Brent Austin to serve as president and chief operating officer, a newly created position. Austin currently serves as the company's executive vice-president and chief financial officer. In his new position, Austin will oversee the company's nonregulated businesses as well as its financial functions.

Succeeding Austin will be D. Dwight Scott, who is presently serving as the company's senior vice-president, finance.

Upstream moves

Beta Oil & Gas Inc., a Tulsa-based independent oil and gas exploration and production company, has appointed David A. Wilkins as its president and CEO. Wilkins, who also will serve on the company's board, succeeds Steve Antry.

Wilkins joined Beta from Vintage Petroleum Inc., also of Tulsa, where he has most recently served as general manager, Latin America. Prior to that, Wilkins served as president and general manager of Vintage unit Vintage Oil Argentina Inc. for 4 years. Before his Latin America assignment, he served as operations manager, US, for Vintage.

Wilkins began his career with Pioneer Production Corp. in 1982. In addition, he served as vice-president, operations, for Esco Exploration Inc., Tulsa.

Paul A. Doyle
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Paul A. Doyle has been named vice-president of privately held Offshore International Group Inc. (OIG) and president of the firm's US oil and gas subsidiary Fairways Offshore Exploration Inc., Houston. Fairways is affiliated with Offshore Specialty Fabricators Inc., OIG's Houma, La.-based fabrication and derrick barge arm.

Doyle joins OIG and Fairways with 27 years of experience in the oil industry. Most recently, he served as vice-president, operations, for CMS Oil & Gas Co., which was recently offered for sale through two agreements by its parent firm, CMS Energy Corp. of Dearborn, Mich., to private French firm Perenco SA (OGJ Online, July 30, 2002).

Prior to working for CMS, Doyle held a number of engineering and operations positions with International Paper Co.'s oil and gas unit IP Petroleum Co. Inc., Tenneco Inc., and ChevronTexaco Corp. predecessor Texaco Inc.

Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc. has hired Scott D. Josey and Allan D. Keel as full-time employees. Both Josey and Keel previously worked for Enron Corp., Houston, and had worked under a services agreement with Mariner since August 2001.

Josey will serve as chairman and CEO. Keel, meanwhile, will serve as the company's president and chief operating officer. Both appointments became retroactive to Aug. 21.

Separately, David S. Huber, senior vice-president, Dalton F. Polasek, senior vice-president, and Judd Hansen, vice-president, were recently named Mariner officers.