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Occidental Petroleum has appointed Sunil Mathew as its new chief financial officer for the next three years. He succeeds Robert Peterson, who served as Senior Vice President and CFO. As EVP, Peterson will now oversee the company’s chemical segment. Mathew joined Occidental in 2004 and has been Vice President of Strategic Planning and Analysis since 2014, in which role he was instrumental in the company’s large-scale divestiture effort of around $10 billion following the Anadarko acquisition. He has also worked for Schlumberger in the Middle East and Asia. Peterson, who has been CFO since 2020, will become executive vice president of essential chemistry at Occidental Chemical Corporation (Oxy-Chem), a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Vedanta says that it has appointed John Slaven as the chief executive officer of its aluminium business and Stephen Russel Moore as deputy CEO for its subsidiary Cairn Oil & Gas. Slaven will begin his new appointment on October 3, 2023 for three and a half years, while Moore will take over his new role with immediate effect, the company says. Moore was previously chief operating officer (COO) of Cairn Oil & Gas, the oil and gas exploration venture of the larger Vedanta group. The company says that Slaven, “will be leading all aspects of the strategy of aluminium business’ growth and strategy, including development of strategic alliances with global partners to fast-track business delivery.” Slaven has earlier worked with Australian company BHP Billiton in major executive roles. Moore will be overseeing the “growth strategy and strategic business alliances with global partners to fast-track business delivery”. Vedanta also plans to establish an advisory board for Cairn’s business, and intends that CEO Nicholas Walker will play a key role in this.

Chevron has waived its mandatory retirement age of 65 to allow chief executive Mike Wirth to remain in position for the foreseeable future, during what the company describes as a volatile period for the oil and gas industry. Wirth, who turns 63 later this year, has been at the helm of the oil and gas major since 2018. The company also says that CFO Pierre Breber will retire next March after a 35-year career at the company. He will be replaced by Eimear Bonner, Chevron’s current chief technology officer, who previously led its Tengizchevroil joint venture in Kazakhstan.

Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy has appointed a new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective from 21 February 2024. In the meantime, the company has selected an interim CEO, as its current CEO’s tenure has come to an end. According to Beach Energy, Morné Engelbrecht ceased to be CEO on 9 August 2023. Beach chairman, Glenn Davis, expressed gratitude to Engelbrecht for his leadership and contribution to the company both as CEO and before that as CFO.

Engelbrecht, who assumed the role of Acting Chief Executive Officer in November 2021, stepped into the permanent CEO role in May 2022, after what Beach described as an “extensive international recruitment process” led by the firm’s board of directors and external advisors. He has over 20 years of oil, gas, and resource sector experience, including the last seven years with Beach Energy.

Brett Woods will become the new Managing Director and CEO from 21 February 2024. Woods has over 25 years of experience in upstream oil and gas, including most recently ten years at Santos where he undertook a number of executive roles including Chief Operating Officer (COO), Vice President Developments and Vice President Eastern Australia business unit.

Woods began his career with Woodside Energy in the graduate programme and held senior technical roles in Australia and Africa. In 2007, he became Managing Director and CEO of African start-up Rialto Energy. Woods was responsible for growing Rialto’s business through acquiring new exploration licences in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, raising capital and commencing two large drilling campaigns in the highly prospective Transform Margin.

In the intervening period current non-executive director, Bruce Clement, has been appointed interim CEO and will continue as an executive director. Commenting on the interim CEO role, Davis underlined the board’s confidence in Clement’s ability to continue to deliver the company’s growth projects and drive operational performance.