IOGP names new EU affairs director

International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) has named a new EU affairs director.

IOGP, whose members produce 40% of the world’s oil and gas, said that it named François-Régis Mouton as the EU affairs director and that he would be based in Brussels.

Mouton will succeed Roland Festor, who retired after almost five years with the Association. Mouton previously represented Total on IOGP’s EU and Communications committees.

He joins IOGP’s secretariat with 30 years of international experience in the oil & gas industry. At Total, he was, most recently, the vice president for oil and gas advocacy. Previously, his career encompassed reservoir engineering in Europe and Africa, gas and power business development in the UK and Northern Europe, and a senior advisory role in the World Bank’s Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership and European Affairs activities in Brussels.

In 2011, Mouton also founded GasNaturally, a Brussels-based partnership representing the entire European gas value chain.

Regarding his new appointment, Mouton said: “Europe’s energy landscape is evolving and so is the way we use oil and gas. Our industry will retain an important role in the decades to come, and my focus will be to help raise its profile and communicate what this role looks like in a lower carbon environment.

“I look forward to building closer links with the EU Institutions and governments, but also to finding synergies with other industrial sectors, including renewables, because the challenges we face can only be solved through common action.”

IOGP executive director Gordon Ballard added: “We are delighted to have him steer the Association’s European activities at a time that requires an innovative and bold approach. François-Régis has already contributed enormously to the work of IOGP’s various committees in his time at Total; we now look forward to drawing on his expertise as our new EU Affairs Director.”

IOGP serve industry regulators as a global partner for improving safety, environmental and social performance. The association also acts as an upstream forum in which its members identify and share knowledge and good practices to achieve improvements in health, safety, the environment, security and social responsibility.