Robert A. Malone has been appointed chairman and president of BP America Inc. He will be based in Houston.
Prior to this appointment, Malone served as chief executive officer of BP Shipping Ltd., which accepted delivery of 48 new, double-hull tankers during his tenure.
Previously, Malone worked for Magna, Utah-based Kennecott Copper Corp., Standard Oil Co. of Ohio, and BP PLC.
Upstream moves
Tom L. Ward joined Riata Energy Inc., Oklahoma City, following the purchase of common stock from the company’s founder, Malone Mitchell III, and other shareholders.
Mitchell will continue as president and chief operating officer.
Riata Energy operates in West Texas and the Piceance basin of northwestern Colorado.
Michael C. Linn, president and chief executive officer of Linn Energy LLC, has been appointed to the additional role of chairman. He succeeds Toby R. Neugebauer.
Linn founded Linn Energy in March 2003 with Quantum Energy Partners.
Sovereign Oil & Gas Co. II LLC, private Houston independent, has named C.W. Murray Jr. as president.
Murray has more than 30 years’ experience in the international oil and gas business, including 17 years as manager of production operations in Columbia and Indonesia. Most recently he served as executive vice-president and general manager for CNOOC SES Ltd. in Southeast Sumatra. Before that he served as president and general manager for Repsol YPF Southeast Asia.
Leor Energy LP has hired three executives with Deep Bossier trend development experience.
Kenton Holliday was appointed executive vice-president of land and acquisitions. He joins Leor Energy from EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., where he served as a group leader in the company’s East Texas division.
Holliday, with more than 29 years of entrepreneurial oil and gas experience, had a key role in EnCana’s success in acquiring one the largest acreage positions of Deep Bossier prospects in the industry, Leor said.
Carlos Roa, a 25-year industry veteran, was appointed Leor Energy’s vice-president of exploration.
Roa most recently served as senior geological advisor on the unconventional resources exploration team at ConocoPhillips’ unit Burlington Resources Inc., where he worked for 9 years. In this role, Roa developed a geological framework of the entire Deep Bossier trend of East Texas and was directly responsible for the discovery of Savell gas field in Robertson County, Tex.
David M. Tubbs joined Leor Energy as vice-president of operations. He has more than 26 years of engineering experience, 9 of which have been with Burlington Resources, where his most recent role was managing the Deep Bossier drilling program in Robertson and Leon counties.
Tubbs tenure included implementation of a slim-hole well design in East Texas using expandable tubular technology resulting in savings of more than $1 million/well, and a cost-management program that over 2 years saw the cost/ft of drilling remain constant despite rising services costs and a 200% increase in rig rates.
Transmeridian Exploration Inc., Houston, which focuses on Kazakhstan, has appointed Alan W. Halsey vice-president and chief operating officer.
Halsey has 31 years of international oil and gas experience, including 28 years with units of Chevron and Texaco.
Prior to joining Transmeridian, Halsey managed private investments.
Texas Crude Energy Inc., Houston, has appointed Michael A. Huhnke vice-president, operations.
Huhnke, a 20-year company veteran, previously served as the firm’s manager of drilling and production.
Westside Energy Corp., Houston, has appointed Brian Gross as operations manager.
Prior to his current appointment, Gross worked for Chief Oil & Gas LLC and Western Atlas Logging Services.
Matra Petroleum PLC, Adderbury, UK, has appointed Neil Andrew Hodgson exploration director.
Hodgson, with 20 years of oil and gas experience, most recently served as general manager of exploration for Premier Oil PLC in London.
He previously worked for British Gas as exploration manager, Egypt. He began his career with BP PLC.
Other moves
TransCanada Corp. has appointed Russ Girling president, pipelines, a new position. He has been executive vice-president, corporate development and chief financial officer.
He will oversee TransCanada’s regulated businesses, including its gas and oil in Canada, the US, and Mexico, succeeding replacing TC Pipelines LP Pres. and Chief Executive Ron Turner, who will leave the company after 24 years of service.
Alex Pourbaix, executive vice-president, power, has been appointed TransCanada’s president of energy. Pourbaix will be responsible for the firm’s nonregulated businesses, including power, gas storage, and LNG.
Greg Lohnes has been named executive vice-president and chief financial officer. Prior to his appointment, Lohnes served since 2000 as president and chief executive of Great Lakes Gas Transmission Co., which is 50% owned by TransCanada.
Wayne T. Smith has been appointed executive vice-president of BASF Corp., as well as president of the company’s newly formed global catalysts division, which is a combination of BASF’s existing global catalyst operations and the Engelhard Corp. catalyst operations that BASF recently acquired.
Prior to Smith’s current position, he served as group vice-president of BASF’s intermediates business in North America. Previously, he served as vice-president and general manager of specialty construction chemicals for W.R. Grace and Co., Cambridge, Mass. Before that, Smith was the vice-president and general manager of The Boc Group, Murray Hill, NJ.