Interim CEO takes the helm at Trillion as previous one retires

Canada’s oil and gas player Trillion Energy has named an Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and added two new members to its management team following the resignation and retirement of its current CEO and Director.

The change took effect on December 27, 2024, when the board of directors formally accepted the resignation of Arthur Halleran. Having served as CEO since 2017 and led the development of the firm’s SASB gas field offshore Türkiye, Halleran decided to retire.

The company says the search for Halleran’s replacement is underway. The new CEO is expected to focus on scaling up existing assets and make strategic moves to enter new plays, thus increasing shareholder value.

While on the lookout for a new head, the company has appointed Sean Stofer Chairman of the Board of Directors and Interim CEO. Holding an engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, Stofer has over 20 years of energy industry leadership and governance experience.

According to Trillion, Stofer has worked on conventional energy projects and the development of power projects including solar, wind, hydroelectric, and recently the Arctic’s largest solar array. He won the Top 40 Under 40 award in Vancouver, Canada for his business achievements.

“We would like to thank Mr. Halleran for his years of dedicated service as CEO in the early development of SASB and Trillion. We look forward to a transformational year for Trillion, by ramping up production leveraging existing assets and acquiring additional assets. The Company is committed to the process of new appointments to drive future growth and success for Trillion shareholders,” noted Stofer. 

Furthermore, the company welcomed two more members to its management team and plans to create an advisory board of industry veterans seeking to add two more directors. This is said to form part of its overall transitional plan in Q1 2025. 

The first addition is Burak Tolga Terzi, who has been appointed Trillion’s Vice President and Deputy General Manager. Terzi holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Logistics, having previously worked for Valeura Energy in Turkey, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Weatherford International, Nobel Oil Services, and AQS in Turkey and Iraq.

The second is Scott Lower, who has been named company President. Lower has held a consulting role for the Canadian firm in the public markets and its endeavors and recently was appointed as President of one of Trillion’s subsidiaries, Park Place Energy. He is a certified public accountant with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and has a background in finance and public markets.

As the new year rolled in, Trillion kicked off activities on two tripod platforms, Akkaya and East Ayazli. The aim is to run string tubing into the Alapli-2 and Bayhanli-2 wells to boost production and optimize gas flow at the SASB gas field.

The velocity string operations at the field were launched in October, followed by the start of snubbing operations in November and inserting velocity strings in four existing wells in late December after some weather-related days. These activities form part of the second stage of the workover program intended to revitalize the field and sustain long-term natural gas production.