Marathon Oil Corp. COO David E. Roberts Jr. has resigned effective Friday (Dec. 14) to “pursue other interests,” according to the company. Since joining the Houston-based producer in 2006, Roberts had been considered an important contributor to the upstream business. He was named senior vice president for business development and was promoted in 2008 to executive vice president of upstream, overseeing upstream and production. Roberts became COO when the company spun off its refining operations last year to become a pure-play explorer (see Daily GPI, July 1, 2011). He was said to be on the short list to succeed CEO Clarence Calazot, 62. The company declined to offer further details.

The former CEO at the Export-Import Bank (2006-09) in Washington, DC, James Lambright, will join Sempra Energy in a newly created position as senior vice president for corporate development, effective Jan. 2, the San Diego-based energy holding company said. Lambright will direct Sempra’s investments, strategic partnerships and acquisitions, reporting to Sempra President Mark Snell. Most recently Lambright was COO and a member of the board at Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based biofuels development company. Lambright is a Harvard law graduate with an undergraduate degree in linguistics from Stanford University.

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