West of Shetland basement fractured reservoir explorer Hurricane Energy has a new non-executive chairman after John Hogan announced his plans to step down from the board on completion of a three-year stint in the role in March of this year.
Dr Robert Arnott will take over the role 1 March 2016. Dr Arnott has spent over three decades in the oil and gas industry. During his career, which began at Shell International, he has held the role of chairman at each of Petroceltic International, Global Petroleum and Oyster Petroleum and non-executive directorships at Rocksource and, until recently, Core Energy, an oil and gas company focused on the Norwegian continental shelf. Dr Arnott was a director of Spring Energy and is currently chairman of Independent Oil Tools, an international oil services business.
In addition, Dr Arnott spent 10 years in investment banking, most recently at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Goldman Sachs International, and is a Research Associate at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Dr Robert Trice, CEO of Hurricane Energy, said: “I am delighted that we have attracted a Chairman of such high calibre to Hurricane. This is an extremely important time for the company as we continue to progress our ongoing discussions aimed at achieving first oil on Lancaster. I would like to thank John for his valuable contributions and advice over the last three years and wish him all the best for his future endeavours.”
Dr Arnott commented: “I am delighted to be joining Hurricane at such an exciting time for the business, as it continues to progress the farm-out of its world class Lancaster discovery, the biggest find on the UK Continental Shelf in over a decade. Robert and his team have demonstrated their ability to flow oil at commercial rates and I am looking forward to working with them to develop the field and make Lancaster a key part of the UK oil industry’s future.”