IOG picks former Ithaca man as new chief operating officer

Oil and gas company focused on the UK North Sea Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has appointed a new chief operating officer (COO).

IOG said on Monday that it appointed David Gibson to the role of chief operating officer. The company added that he had extensive North Sea engineering and project management experience over a near 30-year energy industry career.

Gibson started his industry career at Foster Wheeler Wood Group and Amec after which he spent 15 years at Marathon Oil UK before moving to TAQA Bratani where he was technical director until 2019.

Most recently he was with Ithaca, where he led the integration of the North Sea assets acquired for $2 billion from Chevron and subsequently was appointed as assets director.

“David’s appointment as COO […] enables Rupert Newall to step back from his interim project director role and continue in his permanent role as chief financial officer“, IOG stated.

Andrew Hockey, CEO of IOG, said: “We are delighted to welcome David to lead the operating team at IOG where he will be a key contributor in successfully delivering on our ambition to be a safe, efficient, low-carbon developer and producer of high-value gas. In so doing he will build on strong existing foundations and I thank our CFO Rupert Newall for fulfilling the interim project director role very effectively over recent months.

“David joins the company at an exciting time with Phase 1 construction in full swing and development drilling expected to start in around two months, targeting first gas in Q3 this year. Supported by an excellent team already in place across all disciplines, David will be able to hit the ground running and I have no doubt he will have a very positive impact across our business“.

IOG last year saw its field development plan for Core Project Phase 1 in the UK North Sea approved by the UK Oil and Gas Authority. The company is on target to achieve first gas from Phase 1 in the third quarter of 2021.

The Core Project comprises gas resources across six discovered UK Southern North Sea gas fields. Phase One, approved by the OGA, will focus on the development of Blythe, Elgood, and Southwark fields.

The company in January said that work on the construction of the two platforms being built for the project was progressing well with delivery scheduled for 1Q 2021.