Summary
Appointment of General Manager Exploration & General Manager Drilling
Santos is pleased to announce the appointments of Mr Jacques Gouadain to the role of General Manager Exploration and Mr Frank L Jones to the position of General Manager Drilling.
Mr Gouadain has nearly 40 years experience with oil and gas exploration around the world.
He commenced his career as a field geologist with Aquitane (Elf) in 1962 before moving with Gulf Oil to West Africa. In 1973 he joined TOTAL where he worked in the oil and gas provinces of India, Norway, Angola, Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia and Kuwait.
In 1982 he was appointed Vice President Exploration with TOTAL, a position he held for some 20 years. He was involved in all TOTAL’s main strategic areas and has been associated with giant oil and gas fields in major hydrocarbon provinces in the North Sea, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Mr Gouadain has also acted as an advisor to Indian and Kuwaiti national oil companies on major exploration and development projects.
Mr Jones has some 35 years of global drilling experience in the industry from both the contractor and operator side of the business.
He is considered to be one of the early pioneers in the area of extended reach drilling and has been awarded five patents for drilling methods and devices. In the mid 1990s while working in Asia he was a key member of a team that developed a unique, low cost approach to offshore exploration.
Commenting on the senior management appointments, Santos’ Managing Director, Mr John Ellice-Flint, said:
“Santos is fortunate in securing the expertise of these two global industry leaders”.
“Jacques’ extensive knowledge and experience in finding and developing large hydrocarbon accumulations will provide guidance to Santos’ exploration efforts as it moves towards achieving its strategic exploration objectives”
“Frank will be responsible for establishing a continuous improvement and learning environment for drilling throughout Santos. His diverse experience will be put to good use as we move forward in implementation of the strategy”.