PanAtlantic Energy, formerly Vanco, taps Drennen

May 9, 2012
Vanco Overseas Energy Group, Houston, has changed its name to reflect its existing scope of operations and appointed a new president and chief executive officer to lead its deepwater exploration programs offshore Brazil, West Africa, and in the Black Sea.

Vanco Overseas Energy Group, Houston, has changed its name to reflect its existing scope of operations and appointed a new president and chief executive officer to lead its deepwater exploration programs offshore Brazil, West Africa, and in the Black Sea.

William T. Drennen III, a 36-year veteran of executive management at ExxonMobil Corp., Hess Corp., and elsewhere, will head the company, now known as PanAtlantic Energy Group. Drennen will also expand the asset base by acquiring new project, the company said.

PanAtlantic said it has assembled an experienced team from the prior organization’s management and technical staff that “represent a combination of significant deepwater and frontier oil and gas expertise--both as a generator of world-class exploration prospects and as a successful operator of high-potential, capital-intensive deepwater drilling activity.

“PanAtlantic continues with the tradition of solid financial strength, access to capital, and extensive financial and investment experience built on a superior geoscience and engineering technical foundation and skill set,” the company added.

PanAtlantic will drill three exploratory wells in 2012-13 on its three Santos basin blocks off Brazil. In West Africa, the company has varying interests in 4.36 million gross acres in the Transform Margin region including blocks off Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone.

PanAtlantic has an interest in the Prykerchenska block, acquired under Ukraine’s first production sharing agreement, and holds interests in two Black Sea blocks off Romania on trend with a recent ExxonMobil discovery (OGJ Online, Feb. 24, 2011).