First Calgary Petroleums Ltd. announces the nomination of four new Directors to the Company’s Board, including one executive and three non-executive Directors. The new nominees reflect FCP’s progression from a pure exploration company to an exploration and production company. The following appointments are subject to shareholder approval at the Company’s Annual Meeting, to be held in Calgary on Wednesday June 20, 2007.
Appointment of Executive Director
Mr. Shane O’Leary, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, has been proposed to move to an executive position on FCP’s Board. Since joining FCP in January 2006, Mr. O’Leary has been instrumental in securing a gas marketing agreement and completing the conceptual development planning for FCP’s Block 405b in Algeria.
Mr. O’Leary will join Messrs. Richard Anderson, President and CEO, and John van der Welle, CFO and Finance Director, as executive Directors of the Company.
Appointment of Non-Executive Directors
First Calgary is honoured to announce the proposed election of three new non-executive Directors to the Company’s Board: Mr. Charles Pitman, Mr. Keith Henry and Mr. Nick Zana.
Mr. Pitman, 65, has extensive exploration, development and production experience in the oil and gas industry, including 24 years at Amoco Corporation and BP plc. During this time he held a number of senior positions including managing operations in Egypt, Oman, Qatar and the former Soviet Union. Following Amoco's merger with BP he was Regional President, Caspian/Middle East/Egypt and India. In 2000, Mr. Pitman was elected to the Board of NYSE and Nasdaq quoted Apache Corporation, a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Canada, Egypt, Australia, the United Kingdom and Argentina. He is also owner of Shaker Mountain Energy Associates, LLC, a consulting firm and a non executive Director and Interim Chairman of AIM quoted Urals Energy Public Company Limited, a leading independent exploration and production company with operations in Russia.
Mr. Henry, 62, brings to the Board a diverse engineering, procurement and construction background, having over 30 years of international business experience in the development, financing, and management of oil and gas, electricity, process, civil and defense related projects and organisations, 13 years of which were at Chief Executive level. He is currently nonexecutive Chairman of Burren Energy plc, on the Main List of the London Stock Exchange; senior non-executive Director of Emerald Energy plc, on the Main List of the London Stock Exchange, and non-executive Director South East Water Limited, Simon Carves Limited and HPR Holdings Limited. He previously served as Chief Executive of Kvaerner E&C Plc, a construction and engineering firm with a strong focus on the oil and gas sector; Chief Executive of National Power Plc, a FTSE 100 international power generation and supply company with a market capitalisation of approximately £6 billion; and Chief Executive of Brown & Root Limited and a member of the main Brown & Root/Halliburton executive management team.
Mr. Zana, 61, is a senior international oil executive having accumulated over 33 years experience in the upstream oil and gas business. He is currently non-executive Director of Indago Petroleum, an AIM listed upstream company with assets located in the Middle East; and nonexecutive Chairman of KazStroyServices, a major integrated construction company located in Kazakhstan. He previously served as General Director of Tengizchevroil Joint Venture, the operator of the giant Tengiz field in Western Kazakhstan; Managing Director of the Eurasia Business Unit for Chevron, operating throughout the former Soviet Union; President of Chevron Petroleum Technology Company and Chairman and Chief Executive of Nelson Resources, a Canadian and London listed oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in Kazakhstan until the company was acquired by Lukoil in December 2005.
Mr. Ray Antony has informed the Board of his decision to step down from the role of the Chairman of the FCP Board and will not seek re-election to the Board at the Annual Meeting. Messrs. Pitman, Henry and Zana will join FCP’s non-executive Directors Alastair Beardsall, Darryl Raymaker and Yuri Shafranik.
Following the elections at the Annual Meeting on June 20, 2007, the newly elected board will appoint a new non-executive Chairman.
Richard Anderson, President and CEO, commented: “I am very pleased to introduce these distinguished and accomplished gentlemen as new nominees to the Board of Directors of FCP. The director nominees bring a diverse range of upstream oil and gas, engineering and construction experience and I am confident they will offer constructive and insightful advice as FCP continues its growth and development.”
