Aztec Oil & Gas Inc. has elected Franklin C. Fisher Jr. chief executive officer and chairman, effective July 15.
Fisher has served as an advisor to Aztec since its inception.
Before his appointment, he worked mainly as a strategy consultant for various businesses. Before that he was chairman of Ashford Bank-MBank Memorial, which experienced substantial growth and was later profitably sold to Mercantile Bank.
Fisher’s career began in 1964 when he joined a small steel fabrication firm in Houston and, subsequently, bought control of the company after 2 years. He then became involved in various enterprises, and several of his firms operated in multiple foreign countries. Fisher has sold most of his construction and manufacturing holdings.
Other moves
Trans-Orient Petroleum Ltd., Vancouver, BC, has appointed David Bennett executive chairman.
Bennett, a 30-year industry veteran, is a cofounder of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd., where he was chief executive officer from 1997 to 2005.
Bennett was responsible for the Douglas-1 gas-condensate discovery in the Papua New Guinea foreland and led the team that discovered Ngatoro oil field and Kupe South gas-condensate fields in New Zealand.
Bennett said research indicates that the Selandian Waipawa and Maastrichtian to Danian Whangai fractured shales on Trans-Orient’s permits in the New Zealand East Coast basin are “excellent candidates for oil and gas production.”
Australia’s BHP Billiton Group announced Marius Kloppers would succeed Chip Goodyear as chief executive officer effective Oct. 1. Goodyear plans to retire as chief executive on Sept. 30.
Kloppers currently is group president, nonferrous materials, and an executive director. Previously, he served as chief marketing officer and chief commercial officer.
Kloppers will be based at BHP’s headquarters in Melbourne.
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC (LOOP) has appointed Thomas L. Shaw president.
Shaw, an executive and professional engineer with 30 years of experience in the pipeline industry, succeeds Robert C. Thompson, who is retiring after more than 22 years.
Since 2005 Shaw has served as vice-president of operations for LOOP. Before that, he served as a vice-president of Marathon Oil Corp.’s pipeline organization, with engineering, procurement, construction, operations, and maintenance experience in Marathon’s pipeline and refining organizations.
LOOP is jointly owned by Marathon 50.7%, Royal Dutch Shell PLC 46.1%, and Murphy Oil Corp. 3.2%. It is the nation’s only deepwater offshore oil port capable of receiving supertankers for offloading of oil cargoes. LOOP expedites the delivery of over 1.5 million b/d of imported and US crude.
Stone Energy Corp. has appointed Richard L. Smith vice-president of exploration and business development. Smith will assume his role in late July.
Smith joins Stone Energy from Dominion E&P Inc., where he currently serves as general manager of deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration.
Smith previously worked for Exxon Corp. and Texaco USA.