Santos Limited has appointed Mr Gary Christenson as President of its expanding Indonesian operations.
Mr Christenson, who will be based in Jakarta, will be responsible for Santos’ Indonesian operations which are the focus of an increasing exploration program and in recent weeks have yielded the Jeruk oil discovery and the Kutei Basin gas find.
He has spent over 6 years with the independent US oil company Unocal where he was most recently General Manager for Unocal Makassar Ltd and Senior Vice President Deepwater Exploration and Production in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In this senior Unocal executive position, Mr Christenson was responsible for developing Indonesia’s first deepwater oil and gas field and headed the group that has discovered more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent since mid 1998 and drilled more than 100 deepwater wells.
Mr Christenson has also worked for Keltex Energy, British Gas, and Tenneco Oil. He has over 15 years of international oil and gas management experience in Asia and Africa.
“Gary brings to Santos a wealth of international experience in exploration and production and a strong understanding of the Indonesian E&P industry”, said Santos Managing Director, Mr John Ellice-Flint.
“Indonesia is a critical part of Santos’ growth program and it is therefore appropriate to appoint someone of Gary’s calibre to head this strongly-developing part of our business.”
Mr Christenson will take up the position on 1 March 2005.