PERSONNEL MOVES AND PROMOTIONS: Oxy names Chazen president, chief financial officer

Jan. 28, 2008
Occidental Petroleum Corp. has elected Stephen I. Chazen president and chief financial officer.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has elected Stephen I. Chazen president and chief financial officer.

Chazen joined Oxy in 1994 as executive vice-president, corporate development. He was named chief financial officer in 1999.

Prior to joining Oxy, Chazen was a managing director in the investment banking group of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Upstream moves

Linn Energy LLC, Houston, appointed Mark E. Ellis president, succeeding Michael C. Linn. Ellis is also chief operating officer.

Linn will continue as chairman and chief executive officer.

Ellis, a 28-year veteran of the North American oil and gas industry, joined Linn Energy in 2006 as executive vice-president and chief operating officer. Before that he was senior vice-president of North American production for Burlington Resources Inc. and president of Burlington Canada Ltd.

Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. appointed Rod Wallis chief operating officer. The company also announced James Edwards was named to a new position as senior vice-president, special projects.

Having been in the oil and gas industry for 22 years, Wallis has worked for Falcon since September 2007. Before that, he was senior exploration geologist for PetroHunter Energy Corp.

Falcon is a British Columbia oil and gas company having operations in Hungary through its wholly owned subsidiary TXM Oil & Gas Exploration LLC and in Romania through its wholly owned subsidiary JVX Energy Corp.

Circle Oil PLC has appointed Adrian Burrows and Stuart Harker as vice-presidents of geophysics and geology, respectively.

Burrows is a geophysicist with 27 years experience with major operators, including 8 years as chief geophysicist in international offices in Madagascar, the Netherlands, and Argentina, and later 7 years as a consultant in Aberdeen.

Harker is a petroleum geologist with cross disciplinary abilities and 31 years experience in exploration, development, well site operations, and project management with major oil companies.

Nuenco NL has appointed Donald Boyd to the position of petroleum engineer. Boyd will be based at the company’s Ohai, Calif., office, effective Feb. 21.

Boyd is a senior petroleum engineer with more than 40 years of experience in the US oil and gas industry. Previously he was manager of operations for drilling and completion of the US Department of the Interior’s branch of oil and gas. He also served as a drilling manager in California and as a consultant for drilling projects and inline field engineering work to various companies, including Pan American Oil, Texaco Inc., and Exxon Corp.

Downstream moves

The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association has elected Executive Vice-Pres. Charles T. Drevna as the association’s president.

Drevna has more than 35 years of technical, business, and public policy management experience in the refining, petrochemical, and coal industries. Prior to joining NPRA in May 2002, he served as director, state and federal government affairs for Tosco Corp. Previously, Drevna held a variety of government affairs and public policy positions with Sun Co. (now Sunoco) and its affiliates, including as vice-president of public affairs for Sun Coal Co.

Passman and Hagmann
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Port Allen, La.-based Placid Refining Co. has promoted Keith Passman to general manager of the privately owned company’s Port Allen refinery and Joey Hagmann to refinery manager.

Passman has served in several positions since joining Placid in 1978. Prior to this latest promotion, Passman served as director of planning and economics. Hagmann has worked in the oil industry for 29 years and has been with Placid for almost 11 years. Hagmann served as Placid’s manager of engineering prior to this promotion. Passman and Hagmann will oversee the refinery’s ongoing $300 million expansion that will result in increasing by 50% the facility’s 55,100 b/cd refining capacity.

Holly Corp., Dallas, reported that Gary B. Fuller has joined the company as senior vice-president, refinery operations. Fuller joins Holly after a 26-year career with Placid Refining Co., where he held a number of managerial positions, including engineering manager, refining manager, and most recently, vice-president and general manager.