Oil Search loses two top execs besides Botten

Oil Search’s long-serving boss Peter Botten isn’t the gas producer’s only executive heading for the exit this month.

As the company battles to resurrect frozen negotiations with Papua New Guinea over a giant $20bn expansion, its management ranks are also under pressure.

Dale Rollins, who only joined Oil Search in July 2019, has left the company after a shorter than expected stint as executive vice-president of its PNG unit.

Mr Rollins, an ex-Shell executive, was heralded by Oil Search for his experience dealing with governments, community groups, regulators and joint ventures in Nigeria and Russia. He joined the company as it embarked on sensitive talks to land an expansion pact with PNG.

Beth White, executive vice president for development, has taken over Mr Rollins’s responsibilities in PNG including the delicate task of winning over a national government agitating for a greater share of the gas expansion spoils for its citizens.

A longer-serving executive, Ian Munro, with responsibility for gas and marketing, will also leave the company by the end of this month. Mr Munro, who joined Oil Search in August 2013, also held roles with Woodside Petroleum on its Browse LNG project and before that a range of positions with US major ExxonMobil, which is also Oil Search’s senior partner on the PNG LNG project.

Mr Botten will hand over the reins to Keiran Wulff on February 25 after releasing its full-year results, but will remain as an adviser to Oil Search for a further six months until August.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: PERRY WILLIAMS