Carnarvon Petroleum appoints replacement with long-serving chairman to retire

Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (ASX:CVN) long-serving chairman Peter Leonhardt intends to retire after the completion of the company’s 2020 annual general meeting (AGM). The board has therefore appointed William (Bill) Foster, who has been a director of the company since 2010, as the new chairman following the AGM. This change has been planned for a considerable period of time and has been managed in a manner that ensures an orderly succession process for the company. "Poised to be significant producer" Leonhardt said: “I’m incredibly proud to have overseen the transformation of the business from a junior explorer to one that is poised to become a significant producer and explorer and a major contributor to the Australian economy and community. “We have been planning this change for some time and I can assure all of our shareholders that Bill is superbly qualified to lead us through our next phase of growth in which we recently embarked upon in terms of the development of the Dorado project.” The board recently commenced a search process for a new non-executive director. “Exciting period of growth ahead” Foster thanked Leonhardt for his leadership of the company since 2005. He said: “Thanks to his efforts the business is in a strong position with a very exciting period of growth ahead of us. “I look forward to continuing with this success, particularly during the construction phase of the Dorado project.” Carnarvon managing director and chief executive officer Adrian Cook assured shareholders that the seamless nature of this change should give them confidence in the management of the company by the board. He said: “Bill clearly understands the business very well given his tenure to date and his experience is now particularly relevant for the construction period ahead of us.” Dorado development The company is progressing towards development of its Dorado JV project, with three contracts awarded to pre-Front End Engineering Design (pre-FEED) contractors in May. These contracts enabled the parties to work independently to advance their Floating Production Storage and Offtake (FPSO) vessel designs and mature their vessel construction plans as well as supply terms. In addition, conceptual design for the production wells is now complete, and three parties have been shortlisted for the fixed wellhead platform (WHP) that will support the production and ancillary wells and connect to and supply the FPSO. The engineering design (FEED) phase is expected to commence in the current quarter.