Anadarko reshuffles management team

Woodlands-based Anadarko, the developer of the giant Mozambique LNG project, announced on Wednesday several changes to its leadership structure.

Since the beginning of 2015, Anadarko has sold nearly $7.5 billion of non-core assets in order to reposition and focus its business to deliver better returns and growth across commodity cycles, the company noted in a statement.

These management changes align with the evolution of the portfolio and strategic direction the company has taken, it said.

Effective immediately, Danny Brown, formerly Executive Vice President (EVP), International and Deepwater Operations, has been named EVP, U.S. Onshore Operations, with responsibility for the company’s upstream and midstream activity in Colorado, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Mitch Ingram, formerly EVP, Global LNG, has been named EVP, International & Deepwater Operations and Project Management, overseeing Anadarko’s development and production activities in Algeria, Ghana, the Gulf of Mexico and Mozambique. Ingram will also assume responsibility for the company’s worldwide project-management and construction activities.

In addition, the company announced Ernie Leyendecker, formerly EVP, International and Deepwater Exploration, has been named EVP, Exploration, with responsibility for the company’s worldwide exploration efforts. U.S. onshore exploration is being combined with Leyendecker’s prior duties, consolidating all of the company’s exploration activities under his direction.

Brad Holly, formerly EVP, U.S. Onshore Exploration and Production, is leaving the company to pursue other interests.

“By consolidating our leadership structure, we expect to achieve greater consistency and results across the organization with regard to operational execution, health, safety, and environmental performance, and project management,” said Al Walker, Anadarko Chairman, President and CEO.

“We have successfully narrowed the focus of our business and concentrated development activities in world-class material, scalable assets. Consistent with this approach, our executive management team needed to contract accordingly,” he said.

Walker went on to say that Anadarko would continue to direct most of its investing toward the company’s short- and intermediate-cash-cycling opportunities in the U.S. onshore and tieback opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico, while continuing to build longer-term value through its emerging LNG business and selective deepwater exploration.

“We expect the operating environment for our industry to remain volatile and, through our increasing use of technology to enhance safety and improve efficiencies to optimize our exceptional asset footprint, we are very well positioned to manage across cycles,” said Walker.