Max Petroleum Announces the Appointment of Mark Johnson as CEO

01-05-2008

Oil and gas exploration company, Max Petroleum Plc  announced that Mark Johnson has been appointed as the company's chief executive officer and a member of its Board of Directors, effective January 22, 2008. The London, U.K.-based company also outlined its plans to restructure its Board of Directors.

Max Petroleum noted that the new chief executive officer has more than 26 years of experience in the oil and gas sector, which includes 24 years of his working with major oil and gas companies. A mechanical, as well as a petroleum engineer by profession, Mark has held several senior posts with British Gas, Chevron , Texaco, and Transworld E&P. His worldwide experiences range from Kazakhstan, the Middle East, and West Africa to Trinidad & Tobago, and the U.S. During his tenure from 1998-2003 as Managing Director of the North Buzachi project in Kazakhstan for ChevronTexaco, he was instrumental in establishing the first Texaco subsidiary operating in Kazakhstan. Also, Johnson initiated the production operations, which grew to more than 9,000 barrels of oil per day, or bopd, as well as secured government approval to further increase production to 42,500 bopd . Finally, he negotiated the sale of this subsidiary to the Chinese National Petroleum Company in 2003.

In conjunction with Johnson's joining the company as a director and chief executive officer, the company said that current executive chairman Jeffs would move to the post of non-executive chairman of the Board. Lee Kraus and Bob Holland will continue with their roles of non-executive directors, while Michael Young will join the Board as Finance Director, the company added. Further, the British company stated, that all the three key persons would constitute an executive committee of the Board, with Kraus continuing to oversee the company's farm-out process.

Commenting on the appointment, Jeffs, said, “The appointment of Mark as CEO means that Max Petroleum now has the senior management team in place to implement its ambitious growth plans. We have met the challenges of 2007. The Company is in as strong a position as ever to capitalize on its highly prospective assets in Kazakhstan.”