Perenco exec becomes Panoro’s COO as oil & gas player seeks further growth

September 9, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Oslo-listed independent E&P company Panoro Energy has revealed the name of its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President, who will assist the firm in ushering in a new era of business growth and expansion.

Panoro Energy has disclosed the appointment of Eric d’Argentré as its new Chief Operating Officer and President, who brings expertise in operations, drilling, field development, HSE, and project delivery. Before joining the company, d’Argentré held multiple senior management roles over the past three decades at Perenco, a private oil and gas producer.

With a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Offshore/Petroleum Engineering from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, he has considerable operational experience and first-hand know-how in all aspects of the development, production, and management of oil and gas upstream assets in challenging jurisdictions.

John Hamilton, CEO of Panoro, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Eric to Panoro. His considerable experience in managing operations, engineering and delivering complex projects makes him an excellent addition to Panoro’s senior management team.

“His appointment comes at a time when we have established Panoro as a significant independent oil producer in Africa with a portfolio of high-quality assets and numerous opportunities to drive our next phase of growth and value creation for our stakeholders, which Eric’s input will be invaluable towards achieving.”

A few months ago, the firm announced that BW Energy’s second appraisal well confirmed the potential of an oil discovery at a field in the Dussafu license offshore Gabon, where the Oslo-listed player holds a 17.5% stake.

The drilling success followed the signing of production sharing contracts (PSCs) for two blocks between the company, its partners, BW Energy and Vaalco, and Gabon’s Petroleum Minister and Minister of Economy.