Taqa appoints new head of upstream

27 October 2010

BP Russia’s David Cook selected to oversee upstream development at Abu Dhabi firm

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) has appointed David Cook as its new executive officer and head of upstream, according to a 25 October press company statement.

In the newly created position, Cook’s appointment will cover the strategic oversight of upstream projects. Based at the group’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi, Cook will report directly to Abdullah Saif al-Nuaimi, Taqa’s chief executive officer and managing director, as well as Carl Sheldon, the general manager.

Cook previously worked for UK’s BP as vice-president of BP Russia, where he was responsible for exploration and production operational activities, as well as the oil major’s relationship with Russia’s Rosneft. He gained a doctorate in geological sciences in 1988 from Michigan State University in the US.

Taqa is a publically traded energy company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Majority owned by the Abu Dhabi government, the group’s operations include upstream exploration and production, mid-stream activities such as gas storage facilities in Europe and power generation.

Its assets amount to more than AED91.7bn ($24.9bn) and produced revenues of AED16.9bn in 2009. Crude oil and natural gas production averaged more than 132,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first half of 2010, representing more than half of the group’s revenues for the period. The company’s upstream portfolio contained approximately 574 million barrels of oil equivalent of reserves at the end of 2009.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.