Hyperdynamics boosts management team

Hyperdynamics Corporation, an independent US-based oil company with assets in Guinea, has made several additions to its management team in an attempt to better position the company for its upcoming drilling program.

Hyperdynamics said on Tuesday that it brought in four new members of the management team.

The company brought in Sergei Alexeev to be the Vice President of Commercial Development on a consulting basis and will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer in January.

David Gullickson joined Hyperdynamics as Vice President of Finances and Treasurer while Forrest Estep joined as Vice President of Operations.

Randy Ditmore, Houston Drilling Management man, became the company’s consulting Drilling Manager who will report to Forrest Estep.

The company said that Alexeev, Gullickson, and Estep, will report to Hyperdynamics President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Leonard.

Leonard said: “With the recent amendment of our Production Sharing Agreement that extended our exploration rights in Guinea for another year and with the settlement of litigation with our former partners that restored 100% ownership of our concession area to Hyperdynamics, our focus now is to rebuild a core management team to develop a drilling plan for the Fatala well scheduled for next year and identify sources of capital and/or new farm-in partners to help us drill this very high-potential, deepwater oil prospect.

“These executives bring extensive international oil exploration and production and offshore operations experience as well as connections to capital markets and financial expertise to Hyperdynamics.”

Alexeev most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for Soyuzneftegaz, a Russian oil and gas company, and earlier was the First Vice-President for Rosneft in charge of Economics, Finance, and Business Development. The company added that he also has experience in banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions and international negotiations.

Gullickson joined Hyperdynamics from the Tatum consultancy, where he served energy client companies over the last ten years in a variety of senior management roles, including interim CEO, CFO, Controller, and Treasurer. Earlier, he held executive positions with Precision Tube, Tejas Power, Corporate Solutions Corporation and Buttes Gas and Oil.

According to the company, Estep has more than 30 years of drilling, completions, and production experience. Most recently he served as Vice President of Drilling and Completions for Afren Resources, leading exploration and development drilling activities in multiple locations in Africa and the Middle East. He also has held senior positions overseeing deepwater drilling projects with Anadarko Petroleum, Repsol Services, Transocean Offshore, Conoco, and Amoco.

Ditmore has over 35 years of experience in production, drilling, and completion engineering, working in numerous onshore US basins, the Gulf of Mexico Shelf and Deepwater, the North Sea, Caspian Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. He is seconded to Hyperdynamics from Houston Drilling Management and previously worked with Noble Energy and Amoco.