Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) and its chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Barker-Homek announced in a joint statement issued on 16 October that Barker-Homek was to leave the company with immediate effect to “pursue other career ambitions”.

“What I am going to do next will be announced in the next couple of weeks,” Barker-Homek tells MEED. “It will be in the energy sector and it is a very exciting opportunity.”

Carl Shedon, formerly deputy general manager and general legal counsel at the firm, will assume the day-to-day running of the company in the newly created role of general manager.

“For now, the new general manager will take over the responsibilities of the CEO,” says a comnpany spokesman. “It has not been decided yet whether a new CEO will be appointed later on.”

Barker-Homek was appointed CEO of Taqa in 2006 on the basis of his experience in mergers and acquisitions, according to the company.

“Taqa is moving into a new phase of development with the strategic focus of the company now shifting to the continued integration of the global business and investing in our existing network,” says Hamad Al-Hurr Al-Suwaidi, chairman of the board at Taqa.

Taqa is an investment vehicle for Abu Dhabi. Its operations cover upstream exploration and production, mid-stream activities including gas storage facilities in Europe, and power generation and desalination. The company runs six independent water and power plants in the UAE and handles 98 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s water and electricity.

It has assets of more than AED86bn ($23.4bn) and produced revenues of AED16.8bn in 2008, while generating 1,069MW of power and producing 114,000 barrels a day of oil from reserves of 621 million barrels.