Nexen veteran Harris named as NEO Energy CEO as Alton departs

NEO Energy, the UK’s fifth largest North Sea oil and gas operator, has named Nexen veteran Paul Harris as its new CEO.

Mr Harris replaces Russ Alton who, with CFO Rob Adams, has decided to depart the company. Robert Gair is named the new chief financial officer.

In a statement NEO Energy, which is owned by Norway private equity player HitecVision, said the pair “have decided that now is the right time to step down from their roles”.

Mr Alton, a specialist in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), is replaced by Paul Harris, currently the chief operating officer at NEO (a role he is retaining), who has a background in process engineering and project management.

Mr Harris spent 17 years at Nexen, with more than a decade in project management at the Buzzard oilfield and Golden Eagle UK developments. Before joining NEO as COO in December 2019, he was managing director of Garbeth Energy.

NEO Energy and Hitec thanked Russ Alton and Rob Adams for their work having “presided over NEO’s material growth” and their “significant contribution and effort”.

In a separate statement on social media Rob Adams said: “Now is the right time to step down from my role as the future focus will be more on operational excellence and organic delivery. I am looking forward to spending some longoverdue quality time with my family and seeing what the next chapter holds.”

NEO said its ambition remains “to be the UK basin’s leading operator”, stating: “The changes announced today will support the focus on operational excellence and organic delivery.”

During Mr Alton’s time in charge, NEO focused on M&A to deliver growth. The first big deal, soon after he joined, was completion of a package of assets from French oil major Total.

NEO followed that in 2021 with the acquisition of Zennor Petroleum, and ExxonMobil’s stakes in a package of North Sea assets, then last year acquired the North Sea assets of Japan’s JX Nippon for $1.6 billion.

Rob Adams: ‘Right time’.