Beach Energy exec to lead Buru

The succession baton is being readied at Buru Energy who has appointed Beach Energy executive Thomas Nador as CEO. Founder and Executive Chairman Eric Streitberg flagged an orderly transition to the role of Non-Executive Chair. Streitberg says he is looking to focus on overseeing the monetisation of the company’s expansion opportunities.

Currently Nador is Group Executive – Development at Beach Energy and has shouldered responsibility for the development of Beach’s oil and gas reserves including the development of Beach’s Perth Basin assets.  He is slated to put his feet under the CEO’s desk at Buru in September and will drive Buru’s day to day operations and deliver a forward program to make the most of the inherent value in its portfolio, according to the company.

Notably, Streitberg was instrumental in driving a renewed flurry of exploration in the 2000s in the Perth Basin when he led Arc Energy to develop oil-driven discoveries such as Hovea, Xyris, Eremia, Redback and he also led that company in joint ventures that made a string of other discoveries.

Arc Energy was taken over on market by AWE Ltd in 2008 who subsequently made the 2014 world-class Waitsia gas discovery and drove the current successful exploration phase in the deeper, gas prone Perth Basin. Buru Energy was spun out of the Arc’s asset spread, centring around the latter’s Canning Basin assets from which Buru has grown into an $85 million explorer and producer.

Interestingly, four years later AWE was taken over by Japanese trading house Mitsui, currently Beach Energy’s development partner in the Waitsia field.

Buru said Nador’s focus will be on both the commercialisation of last year’s potentially world scale Rafael gas condensate discovery in the Canning Basin and on providing impetus for Buru’s energy transition businesses. This includes the CCS Geovault program that was the recipient of a recent grant offer from the Federal Government.

Buru’s Executive Chairman, Eric Streitberg said:

“We are delighted that Thomas has agreed to join the Buru team. Thomas has the skills and experience that will help us take Buru to the next level and extract the ultimate value from both our core business and our energy transition businesses that are assuming lives of their own.”

Nador’s other roles included Executive Vice President and Country Manager for InterOil Corporation and he also previously held senior project development positions with Woodside over a 13 year period.

Buru said Streitberg will continue in his current position for a “appropriate time” while Nador assumes day-to-day running of the company as the parties look to effect a  a smooth transition of operational responsibilities. 

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