Alpha Petroleum names new CFO amid Cheviot development progress

Alpha Petroleum Resources, an upstream oil and gas operator focused on the UK sector of the North Sea, has appointed Charles Proctor, a former executive at BP and Genel Energy, as its new chief financial officer.

Proctor has over 28 years of experience in the international energy industry having held senior executive positions at major corporations and worked with smaller, more entrepreneurial businesses.

In his early career, he held several commercial and financial roles in BP’s businesses in the UK, internationally, and in the company’s corporate headquarters. He subsequently became CFO for BP’s major exploration and production businesses in Angola and later Azerbaijan. In 2009, he was appointed the head of the BP Group chief executive’s office and became Regional President for BP Middle East in 2010.

In 2012, Proctor left BP to join the executive team of Genel Energy, an independent exploration and production company established in 2011 as Head of Commercial and regional president for Africa. Since 2015, he has been working as an industry consultant providing advisory services to several existing and start-up energy companies and is also an independent member of the supervisory board of Naftogaz of Ukraine.

Andy Crouch, Alpha Petroleum’s CEO, said: “His [Proctor’s] considerable international experience at an executive level will greatly add to the team’s existing expertise. To welcome such a veteran of the sector who also understands the challenges that face a smaller entrepreneurial business such as ours will be invaluable as we continue to develop the Alpha proposition.”

Charles Proctor added: “I am delighted to be joining Alpha Petroleum. The team’s strong industry experience and operational knowledge put the firm in a commanding position to take advantage of an opportunity such as Cheviot, which is already making swift and impressive progress.”

The appointment of a CFO comes as Alpha Petroleum continues to make progress with plans to develop Cheviot oil field, one of the largest undeveloped fields in the UK North Sea.

The company recently announced that GE Oil & Gas would partner with the firm on the advancement of the subsea infrastructure for Cheviot. In April, Alpha Petroleum announced it had entered into a Front-End Engineering and Design study agreement with Teekay Offshore Partners for its Varg floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.

Alpha expects to achieve sanction for the Cheviot development during the fourth quarter of 2017 and is targeting first oil production in 2019, at an expected rate of at least 30,000 barrels per day.