New COO for Ithaca as Stella nears

Ithaca Energy has appointed Roy Buchan as its Chief Operations Officer, starting 5 January 2015, and announced that Chief Development Officer John Woods is to leave the company on 31 January.  

The move comes as Ithaca nears first production on its Greater Stella Area development in the North Sea. Last month, the firm said the ENSCO 100 jackup drilling rig had started drilling the fifth Stella development well in the field and that work on the FPF-1 floating production facility, which has faced some delays, was due to complete and be delivered mid-2015.

The renovation work is being carried out at the Remontowa Shipyard in Poland under a lump sum contract with Petrofac. 

Image: The FPF-1 before renovation and construction at the Remontowa Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, work started. The facility was previously used on Hess' Ivanhoe/Rob Roy fields, when it was known as the AH010.

Buchan has over 30 years of operational experience in the oil and gas industry, having held various technical and senior management positions in the North Sea and internationally for Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and Talisman.

At BG Group he was Group Head of Operations and at Talisman he was Technical & Production Director of Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Limited.

Les Thomas, Ithaca's CEO, said: “We are delighted to welcome Roy to head up the company’s operations organization.  He brings a wealth of industry experience and a deep understanding of North Sea operations that will be invaluable as the company prepares for the commencement of production from the Stella development.  We would also like to sincerely thank John for his contribution to the company over the years and wish him well in the future.”

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