Jerry Schuyler, chairman of Gastar Exploration Inc., Houston, has been appointed the company’s interim chief executive officer. J. Russell Porter, president and chief executive officer of Gastar since 2004, will leave the company following a transitional period and will “remain available to the company on a consulting basis,” the company said. A search to fill the permanent position of president and chief executive has been initiated.
Noting the company’s capital structure refinancing, and the pending sale of its West Edmund Hunton Lime Unit in Oklahoma for $107.5 million, Schuyler said the board “has a high degree of confidence in Gastar’s future and its ability to continue unlocking the value of its very attractive STACK play assets.”
At the time the deal was announced in January, the company had restarted its single-rig drilling program with the expectation that 20 operated wells could be drilled and completed in 2018 to more fully delineate and develop the Meramec and Osage formations on its 65,200 net surface acres in the company’s core STACK position.