GKP Appoints New CEO

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LSE: GKP) has announced the appointment of Jon Harris as its new chief executive officer.

Harris will join the board of GKP and assume the CEO role on January 18.  He will have a period of handover with Jon Ferrier who will retire on January 31.

The incoming CEO has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and joins GKP from SASOL Limited, an integrated energy and chemicals company based in South Africa where he was the executive vice president of upstream. Harris previously spent 25 years with BG Group in various international roles.

“Following a thorough global search process, I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Jon Harris as CEO,” Jaap Huijskes, the chairman of GKP, said in a company statement.

“Jon is an experienced executive who brings a wealth of highly relevant project delivery, asset management, production operations and technical experience within the sector to the management team and to the board.  We look forward to him joining GKP and to his contributions,” he added in the statement.

“On behalf of the company, I would like to again thank Jon Ferrier for his outstanding commitment and contributions since joining Gulf Keystone in 2015. Under his leadership, GKP was successfully restructured and transformed, as evidenced by today’s strong operational performance, low-cost structure, robust financial position and pathway to further production growth and value creation,” Huijskes went on to say.

GKP announced back in June that Ferrier had informed the board of his intention to retire from the company upon appointment of a successor and after a period of handover. In a company statement at the time, GKP said it was commencing a formal, externally facilitated, search process for a new CEO.

GKP describes itself as a leading independent operator and producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The company is the operator of the Shaikan field, which is said to be one of the largest developments in the KRI. 

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