Rockhopper COO to take the helm of Echo Energy

UK-based oil and gas company Rockhopper Exploration’s chief operating officer Fiona MacAulay will be relinquishing her position on July 4 to become the CEO of Echo Energy.

MacAulay is a geologist with over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry including time at Mobil, Amerada Hess, and BG.

She joined Rockhopper in 2010 immediately following the Sea Lion oil discovery, off the Falkland Islands, and was a member of the senior team which managed the appraisal of the Sea Lion field and discovered the Casper, Casper South, and Beverley fields.

Rockhopper said on Monday that MacAulay would hand over her responsibilities to the senior members of the technical team who will assume day-to-day management of operational and technical matters from July 2017.

The responsibilities will be handed over to petroleum engineering manager and Falkland asset manager Alun Griffiths, geoscience manager Lucy Williams, and development manager Paul Culpin. Griffiths has been working with Rockhopper since 2010 while Williams and Culpin have been with the company since 2011.

David McManus, Rockhopper chairman, said: “Fiona has been a key member of the Rockhopper board since 2013. She leaves Rockhopper as the largest acreage holder in a basin which we remain confident will be proven to contain a billion barrels of oil.”

CEO Sam Moody added: “Fiona leaves with our thanks for her very significant contribution to the business over the years and we wish her all the best for her new role. Rockhopper has a hugely busy year ahead of us with FEED on our flagship Sea Lion project substantially advanced and discussions on a range of commercial and financing matters ramping up.

“Given the depth and experience of our in-house capability, we will re-assign work to our existing resource, and I look forward to continuing our work program with the team here at Rockhopper.”

In a separate statement on Monday, Echo Energy, a London listed mid-cap upstream company, said that, apart from MacAulay, the company also appointed Julian Bessa as the vice president of exploration. He brings over twenty years of exploration experience across the region, including time at BG where he was the Bolivian exploration manager and the VP of exploration in Brazil.

The current Echo CEO, Greg Coleman, will be stepping down immediately to pursue other opportunities but will be staying on with Echo in the role of transitional advisor until September 1.

James Parsons, Echo Energy chairman, said: “We are delighted to welcome Fiona as the CEO. Echo has an ambitious growth strategy and I look forward to working closely with her and Julian to rapidly build the company into a mid-cap E&P firm.”

Regarding her appointment, Fiona MacAulay said: “We are building an experienced senior team with technical and commercial strength, and are looking to grow the business though material additions to the portfolio as soon as possible. I look forward to working with James and the wider team to add real value for our investors and create a dynamic company of real scale.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff