Wintershall, Neptune Appoint Directors

Europe's major independent producer German Wintershall Dea has appointed a new COO for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Dawn Summers, with effect from June 1, it said March 10. For the last two years, Dawn has served as COO of the Australian oil and gas producer Beach Energy, a position for which she left Origin Energy, where she had been COO responsible for the integrated gas division. She began her career with 20 years at BP and has 25 years in the international upstream business. She has a degree in chemical engineering, also from Edinburgh.

“We are very pleased that Dawn will join Wintershall Dea. She will strengthen the management team and the company with her extensive international and operational experience on our way to further profitable growth”, said Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren.

Another independent, Neptune Energy has appointed Alexandra Thomas as its UK managing director, based in Aberdeen, the independent producer said March 10. Her last role was head of Tullow Oil’s exploration, development and commercial business in Ghana, with previous employment at Anglo-Dutch major Shell and Norwegian Equinor. The interim head, Pierre Girard, who had held the position since October, will take up the new role of director of commercial and joint ventures, UK. Thomas has a degree in physics from Edinburgh University and a doctorate in applied fluids dynamics.

CEO Jim House said that Thomas was joining at “an exciting time for the business. With our Seagull project progressing well, pending appraisals of exploration programs at both Isabella and Glengorm and development opportunities at Cygnus, we are entering an important period of growth in the UK.” 

The two appointments come at a challenging time for the upstream, as oil prices have nose-dived in the wake of the Saudi Aramco plan to raise production and regain market share from April, when Opec's present production cuts agreement expires. The news sent oil company share prices downwards, including Saudi Aramco's.