Ghana: Kosmos Energy Names New Chairman and CEO

Kosmos Energy announced that John R. Kemp III has been named Chairman, and Brian F. Maxted has been promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer and made a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

Maxted, along with four other partners, co-founded Kosmos Energy in late 2003. Most recently, Maxted has directed the company’s exploration-led strategy as Chief Operating Officer.

He led Kosmos in opening the deepwater Tano Basin offshore Ghana in 2007 with the discovery of the Jubilee Field, the first of several significant finds made in this new hydrocarbon province.

Kosmos and its partners initiated production from the Jubilee Field in early December 2010. The field is one of the most important discoveries offshore West Africa during the last decade and one of the largest finds in the world in 2007.

“Brian has been in a leadership role since the company’s startup. He has been instrumental in Kosmos’ accomplishments and understands the company’s long-term objectives,” said Kemp.

Kemp and Maxted succeed James C. Musselman, former Kosmos Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, following Musselman’s previously announced retirement from Kosmos as an officer and director.

Kemp, who brings seasoned executive leadership and engineering expertise to Kosmos, has been an independent member of the company’s Board of Directors since March 2005. He spent 34 years at Conoco (now  ConocoPhillips) where for 13 years he was responsible for exploration and production activities in the international arena, including the company’s performance in South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He led successful entries into Nigeria and Venezuela and executed Conoco’s first natural gas sales in Indonesia. He also oversaw upstream operations onshore and offshore the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway, including accountability for the $3 billion offshore Heidrun Project in 1993. While at Conoco, Kemp also gained solid U.S. E&P experience, which included managing a $400 million oil development project on Alaska’s North Slope in 1986.

In addition to his work for Kosmos, Kemp is an independent director for Newfield Exploration. He was granted a bachelor of science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1966 and is a Centennial Fellow and Alumni Fellow of the school’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Maxted is a veteran oil and gas explorer with more than 30 years of worldwide E&P experience. Prior to his tenure at Kosmos, he was senior vice president of exploration for Triton Energy, where he led a series of  discoveries offshore Equatorial Guinea. In the 1990s, Maxted managed the discovery of several large gas/condensate fields by Carigali-Triton Operating Company in the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area. A  number of those fields, including Cakerawala, are currently in production.

Following the sale of Triton to Amerada Hess Corporation (subsequently Hess Corporation) in 2001, Maxted was appointed senior vice president of global exploration and new ventures. He oversaw Hess’s continued exploration success in Equatorial Guinea and led the redirection of its deepwater strategy in the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in several important finds.

Earlier in his career, Maxted’s tenure with BP took him to exploration assignments in the UK sector of the North Sea, Egypt, Canada, Norway and Colombia. In Colombia, he managed the discovery and confirmation of the  giant Cusiana and Cupiagua oil fields.

About Kosmos Energy:

Kosmos Energy is a privately held international oil exploration and production company with a focus in West Africa. Kosmos is led by a seasoned management and technical team with extensive international and West Africa experience, and a proven record of finding and developing significant oil reserves. With the financial backing of international private equity investors Warburg Pincus and Blackstone Capital Partners, the company possesses significant financial and operational capability to generate and participate in multiple high-impact upstream projects.

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Source:Kosmos, January 5, 2011;