Austral Pacific Adds to Executive Team
July 18 2007 - 5:29PM
PR Newswire (US)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Austral
Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; Amex: AEN) announced
today it is strengthening its executive team through the permanent
appointment of two key executives and has made significant
improvements to its skill base through the addition of highly
experienced technical and financial staff. Dr. Chris McKeown has
been appointed as Commercial Manager. Chris has been with the
company since October 2006 in a temporary capacity, working
primarily on commercial issues related to the Cheal project. He
will now focus on more strategic issues facing the company. Dr
McKeown is the former CEO of Arrowhead Energy Ltd and provides the
company with a range of skills derived from developing commercial
opportunities within the energy sector. He has held a variety of
key strategic roles including Upstream Fuels Manager; Business
Development Manager and Reservoir Engineer, and has worked on
commercial projects in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and
the Americas. Chris has a BSc (Hons) (Applied Geology) and PhD
(Geology), from the University of Glasgow. Mr. David Pay has been
appointed as Legal Counsel from August 2007. He will work with the
Company Secretary in consolidating the company's governance and
contracting systems, and providing in-house legal support. David
has previously worked as Legal Counsel for Contact Energy and more
recently as General Counsel for the Electricity Commission, New
Zealand's electricity market oversight body. Mr. Andy Price has
been appointed as Projects Manager. Andy's first focus will be the
testing and delivery of the Cardiff resource. He has operational
experience gained in the Middle East, North America and Europe
covering a period of 23 years. He has an extensive knowledge of the
exploration and production challenges relevant to the Taranaki
Basin. Most recently, he managed OMV New Zealand's non-operated
assets and its drilling preparations for its offshore exploration
programme and was previously Engineering Manager for Petro-Canada's
international division in the UK. Mrs. Irene Bocock, previously
Corporate Accountant, has been appointed as Financial Controller.
She is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered
Accountants and has had 20 years experience in chartered
accounting. Prior to joining Austral in February 2007, Irene worked
in the motor industry. The Company has granted 800,000 incentive
options, as part of the remuneration packages for these new staff.
These options replace 500,000 lapsing options which were held by
two former executives. All options are exercisable for 5 years,
vesting in three equal tranches over 18 or 24 months, at an
exercise price fixed at the closing price on the date of the
employee's appointment. For those options recently granted, the
price therefore ranges from US$1.02 to US$1.30. Annual General
Meeting Scheduled The Company's annual general and special meeting
of shareholders is to be held on August 22, 2007 at 4:00 PM (PDT)
at the offices of their attorneys, Lang Michener LLP, at Suite 1500
Royal Centre, 1055 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
The record date for mailing and voting was July 13, 2007. A
briefing for shareholders unable to attend the AGM will also be
held, on September 12, 2007 at noon (NZST), at the James Cook Hotel
Grand Chancellor, 147 The Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. Web
site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/ Email: Phone: Thom Jewell,
CEO +64 (4) 495 0880 None of the Exchanges upon which Austral
Pacific's securities trade have approved or disapproved the
contents hereof. This release includes certain statements that may
be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
applicable legislation. Other than statements of historical fact,
all statements in this release addressing future production,
reserve potential, exploration and development activities and other
contingencies are forward-looking statements. Although management
believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking
statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are
not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or
developments may differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, due to factors such as market prices,
exploration and development successes, continued availability of
capital and financing, and general economic, market, political or
business conditions. See our public filings at
http://www.sedar.com/ and
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for further
information. DATASOURCE: Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. CONTACT: Thom
Jewell, CEO of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd., +64 (4) 495 0880, Web
site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/
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