Sveinung Svarte, president and chief executive officer of Athabasca Oil Corp. since 2006, will retire Sept. 30. Tom Buchanan, chairman, will assume Svarte’s responsibilities.
Svarte will remain with Athabasca as vice-chairman.
The company also increased its 2014 capital budget by $140 million (Can.) to $667 million.
Athabasca’s winter program in Alberta will include running 4 rigs for 16 horizontal and 2 vertical wells.
Development drilling will target near-term production growth for Duvernay shale at Saxon-Simonette and Kaybob West, and one horizontal well at Kaybob East. Costs per well are expected to be $10-15 million.
The company plans a two-well Montney shale appraisal program at Placid, “directly offsetting recent industry success at Bigstone.”