A former Shell boss in Aberdeen has been announced as the successor to Sir Frank Chapman as head of British oil and gas operator BG Group.
Chris Finlayson, one of three senior executives tipped for the role earlier this year, is to take over as chief executive from January 1.
The move follow’s Sir Frank’s 2011 announcement he was planning to retire during 2013.
Earlier this year Sir Frank also began undergoing treatment for very early stage myeloma, a type of cancer effecting plasma cells.
He is to step down from the board but continue in an advisory role until his retirement in June.
Mr Finlayson, a former deputy managing director at Shell Expro in Aberdeen from 1998-2000, joined BG in 2010 and had been executive vice-president for the Europe and central Asia before becoming executive director and managing director of BG Advance, which oversees the company’s technology, innovation and exploration work.
He said: “Under Sir Frank, the group has grown significantly; with resources expanding from 1.2billion to more than 17billion barrels of oil equivalent.
“My priority is to build on this legacy by delivering the new growth projects that will commercialise this huge and valuable resource base, to continue to build on our exploration success, and at the same time to drive for operational excellence and cost efficiency.”
Sir Frank has been in the top role 12 years.
The move comes as BG, which has offices in Aberdeen and operates a number of North Sea assets, has been seeking to reassure investors after a warning on production forecasts saw its shares fall in early November.
Mr Finlayson was promoted to BG’s board in November last year as part of the firm’s succession plans and had been tipped for the post alongside other internal candidates – chief finance officer Fabio Barbosa and chief operating officer Martin Houston.
During his time at Shell, Mr Finlayson was a member of the exploration and production leadership team.
He held a number of senior leadership positions in exploration and production and liquified natural gas in Russia, Nigeria, Brunei and the North Sea.
BG chairman Andrew Gould said: “Frank is an iconic chief executive who grew BG Group out of a minor division of the old British Gas into a vibrant international oil and gas major.
“He has delivered an amazing exploration track record, creating a huge resource base, and developed a differentiated and highly valuable LNG model.
“We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for what has been achieved and for the legacy of opportunities still to be realised.”
As managing director, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Mr Finlayson led Nigeria’s largest and most complex oil and gas joint venture, managing production of some one million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
He was also Shell’s director of Nigeria LNG, the second largest LNG plant in the world at the time.
As executive vice president Shell EP Russia, he was assigned to manage the cost and schedule issues at Sakhalin 2, Shell’s largest integrated oil and gas LNG project at the time, and improve relations with the Russian government and Gazprom.
Alongside responsibility for delivering the project, Mr Finlayson also managed Gazprom’s entry into the project as a joint venture partner.
He was asked to remain chairman of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company when Gazprom became the majority shareholder.