Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. made a number of changes to its executive team, due to take effect in the first quarter of 2018.
COO Tim McKay will become the president of Canadian Natural, while Steve Laut will take on the role of executive vice chairman. The new positions are effective Feb. 28, 2018, at the company's year-end board meeting, according to a Dec. 12 news release.
Canadian Natural will also create two COO positions, effective Jan. 1, 2018, citing significant growth in 2017. Darren Fichter, who serves as executive vice president of Canadian conventional operations, will be promoted to COO of exploration and production. Scott Stauth, the current executive vice president for field operations, will become the COO of oil sands.
The company's exploration and production assets encompass the Canadian conventional assets, including Pelican Lake and international assets, while the oil sands assets include Horizon, the Athabasca oil sands project and thermal operations. At midpoint of guidance, the exploration and production assets have about 580,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and C$2.0 billion in 2018 capital spending, and the oil sands assets have about 537,000 boe/d and C$2.4 billion in 2018 capital spending.
Canadian Natural's operations are focused in western Canada, the U.K. portion of the North Sea and offshore Africa.
