Ansila calls experienced trio to drive UK North Sea gas ambitions

Ansila Energy has made a suite of impressive appointments to the team managing its UK Southern Gas Basin Phase I development project in the North Sea.

The appointments, by wholly-owned subsidiary Hartshead Resources, are highlighted by the hiring of Jeff Barnes as project developments manager. Barnes previously spent 31 years managing 14 UK Southern Gas Basin developments and infrastructure projects at ConocoPhillips (UK), which previously owned Ansila’s (ASX: ANA) assets alongside BP.

Barnes was most recently director of new ventures at Offshore Design Engineering.

He will be joined by Stephen Roser, himself a 30-year industry veteran who comes onboard as commercial manager, and the similarly experienced new contracts and procurement manager Adam King.

The three appointments add substantial experience to the team focused on delivering the Phase I gas project in the highly prospective region, with an impressive track record of delivering results.

They will be responsible for taking the project through the concept select and preliminary field development plan stage-gate, incorporating subsurface, drilling and completion, facilities, pipelines, HSE and commercial analysis to evaluate and select the optimal development concept.

Ansila CEO Chris Lewis said the trio would make a huge difference to Ansila’s development plans.

“I would like to welcome Jeff, Steve and Adam to the team and I am certain that they will all make a vital contribution to the work currently ongoing at Ansila,” he said.

“These three appointments mark a major step forward for Ansila toward the successful delivery of the Phase I gas fields development planning and ultimately towards the delivery of an executable field development plan and bookable 2P reserves.”

A wealth of experience added

The combined appointment of Barnes, Roser and King adds more than a century of relevant oil and gas experience to Hartshead’s development team.

Leading the way is Barnes, who has more than 40 years of upstream oil and gas experience and is recognised within the UK Southern North Sea.

Barnes has a track record of delivering successful UK capital projects and front-end development of technically diverse concepts whilst achieving project funding, creating and managing integrated project teams and securing and managing contracts.

Roser is a proven commercial manager and a seasoned negotiator with an extensive track record in major project delivery across the upstream oil and gas sector.

He has more than 30 years of experience across the hydrocarbon supply chain, including commercialisation of crude oil and natural gas projects, and extensive experience working in the region in roles with British Gas, Amerada Hess and Phillips Petroleum.

During his time at Amerada Hess, Roser was seconded as a board director of Interconnector UK Limited – a major natural gas transmission infrastructure facility between the UK and Belgium.

Since 2003 he has acted as a commercial advisor for a number of energy majors, utilities and AIM-listed companies.

Former clients include Ineos, SLR, RWE, Infrastrata, Amerada Hess, Egdon Resources, Bayerngas, Shell, Premier Oil, GE and Faroe Petroleum with experience of working in Europe, China and the USA.

King’s career in contracts and procurement spans 30 years, with a focus on both international and UK North Sea operations across roles with Worley parsons, Snamprogetti, British Gas, BP Exploration, Nexen Petroleum and in the UK Southern Gas Basin with RWE.

King has acted as a contracts specialist across a wide range of oil and gas projects, ranging from world-class upstream assets including TengizChevroil, Kashagan, Azeri-Chira/Shah Deniz and Deepwater Angola Block 31 through to UKCS developments such as Buzzard, Golden Eagle and Breagh.

He brings an experienced skillset to Ansila’s UK North Sea operations, spanning the pre- and post-contractual services of tendering, cost advice and contracts planning required during the various stages of conceptual, front-end engineering and detailed design, fabrication, construction and installation of various oil and gas process facilities.

Huge project potential

The team will join Hartshead in its focus on the phase I and II development of a multi-phased portfolio of gas discoveries being progressed towards development.

These consist of the Phase I Victoria and Viking Wx fields with 217 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of audited 2C contingent resources, and the Phase II Audrey NW and Tethys North fields with 139 Bcf of 2C contingent resources.

Combined, the assets have an associated 354Bcf of 2C contingent resources.

This article was developed in collaboration with Ansila Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.