PERSONNEL MOVES AND PROMOTIONS:Panaco, Tag Oil, CNOOC name new leaders

Aug. 26, 2002
Houston-based independent oil and gas exploration company Panaco Inc., Tag Oil Ltd. of Vancouver, BC, and Chinese company CNOOC Ltd. have all recently named new leaders.

Houston-based independent oil and gas exploration company Panaco Inc., Tag Oil Ltd. of Vancouver, BC, and Chinese company CNOOC Ltd. have all recently named new leaders.

A. Theodore Stautberg Jr. has been named president and CEO of Panaco. Since 1981, Stautberg has served as president of Triumph Resources Corp. and its parent firm Triumph Oil & Gas Corp., New York.

During 1977-81, Stautberg served as vice-president of investment banking firm Butcher & Singer Inc. During 1972-77, he worked as an attorney with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meanwhile, Alan Hart has been named president of Tag Oil. Prior to joining Tag, Hart held positions with Hunt Oil Co., Dallas, and ARCO International Oil & Gas Co. During his career, Hart has worked in North and West Africa, Central America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

In his 4 years as chief geologist with ARCO's Jakarta-based units, Hart led the exploration efforts that added more than 600 bcf of natural gas and 156 million bbl of oil to their reserve base, Tag said. Also, while serving for 2 years as exploration manager in Jakarta, Hart assisted in bringing nearly 2 tcf of gas into production while managing eight-figure operating and exploration budgets, the company said.

More recently, Hart has focused efforts in the Australasian region, having led exploration programs for several independent oil and gas companies.

Separately, Zhou Shouwei, former executive vice-president of CNOOC, has been appointed president of the Chinese firm. Zhou succeeds Fu Chengyu, who has been named chairman and CEO of CNOOC Services Ltd., a unit of CNOOC.

Currently, Zhou also serves as vice-president of CNOOC Group (OGJ, Nov. 27, 2000, p. 28). In September 1999, he was appointed executive director and executive vice-president of the company.

Before joining CNOOC in 1982, Zhou served as president of China Offshore Oil Bohai Corp.

Other upstream moves

Robert B. Hodgins has been appointed chief financial officer of Pengrowth Corp. effective Aug. 6. Calgary-based Pengrowth Management Ltd. manages both Pengrowth Energy Trust and Pengrowth Corp.

Hodgins joins Pengrowth with over 25 years of experience of working for various Canadian companies, most recently in the position of vice-president and treasurer of Canadian Pacific Ltd.

Before joining Canadian Pacific, Hodgins served as chief financial officer for Calgary-based TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.

Ashley Almanza has been appointed to the position of chief financial officer of BG Group effective Aug. 1. She has worked for BG for 9 years, most recently serving as group financial controller for the company.

Almanza succeeds Andrew Bonfield, who resigned to take a position with Bristol Myers Squibb Co.

While with BG, Almanza also has held several senior finance roles, including finance director of BG International Downstream and deputy finance director of BG International Ltd.

Hugh D. Pattillo has been appointed vice-president, exploration, for Calgary-based Navigo Energy Inc.

Pattillo joins Navigo with over 20 years of technical and management experience with both large and junior companies. Most recently, he served as chief geophysicist for Petromet Resources Ltd. and a chief geophysicist and northern exploration leader for Beau Canada Exploration Ltd., both of Calgary.

Jeremy Greene has joined Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc., Houston, as vice-president, exploration.

Greene has over 19 years of experience in the geosciences field. Previously, he worked for ARCO and Houston-based independents Vastar Resources Inc. and EOG Resources Inc.

Greene succeeds George Canjar, who has left Carrizo to work for a large, private exploration company.

Terje Overvik has been appointed executive vice-president of Statoil ASA's technology division. He succeeds Morten Loktu, who will become president of the Trondheim-based Sintef research foundation.

Before joining Statoil in 1983, Overvik worked as an associate professor and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

While with Statoil, he has held a number of different positions, including platform manager for the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea. Currently, Overvik is serving as vice-president, operations, on the Statfjord field.

Redwood Energy Ltd., Calgary, has appointed John H. Cassels as vice-president, finance, and chief financial officer, and Ernest G. Sorochan as vice-president, operations.

Cassels comes to Redwood with 25 years of financial experience in the oil and gas industry. Over his career, he has held various several senior positions with several exploration companies.

Sorochan has 30 years' experience as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. He has worked both in Canada and internationally in drilling, completion, and production capacities, most recently in operations management.

D. Roy Phillips has been hired as managing director of Newfield Petroleum UK Ltd., a unit of Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co., effective Aug. 5. He will be responsible for overseeing the company's new UK North Sea initiative.

Phillips joins Newfield with nearly 30 years of oil and gas experience, which includes 20 years spent in the North Sea and 10 years in North America, largely in the Gulf of Mexico.

Phillips comes to Newfield from Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee Corp., where he worked since 1984. Most recently, Phillips served as vice-president and managing director for Kerr-McGee North Sea (UK) Ltd. from early 1999 through April of this year. Prior to that, Phillips was vice-president, North America region, starting from mid-1997. During 1989-97, he held various management positions in the company's North Sea operations, including general manager, UK production and drilling operations.

Before working for Kerr-McGee, Phillips worked for Standard Oil of Ohio and Exxon Co.