Appointed

Royal Dutch/Shell Group last week appointed Peter Voser, a former company veteran, to the post of CFO, a move considered key to rebuilding the London-based major’s tarnished image. The announcement precedes the annual general meeting on Monday (June 28), when executives are expected to answer more questions about the energy reserves scandal, which first surfaced in January.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group on Thursday appointed Peter Voser, a former company veteran, to the key post of CFO, a move considered key to rebuilding the London-based major’s tarnished image. The announcement precedes the annual general meeting on June 28, when executives are expected to answer more questions about the energy reserves scandal, which first surfaced in January.

Northeast Utilities’ (NU) board appointed Charles W. Shivery as its new chairman, president and CEO effective immediately. Shivery, who has been interim CEO since January when Michael G. Morris left to become CEO of American Electric Power, becomes NU’s sixth chairman in its 38-year history. Shivery, 58, was previously president of NU’s competitive group, responsible for the strategic growth and performance of NU’s competitive energy businesses, which include Select Energy, Select Energy Services, Northeast Generation Services and Northeast Generation Co., which together provide electricity, gas and specialized generation services in the 11 state region from Maine to Maryland. He joined NU in 2002, having retired earlier that year as co-president of the Constellation Energy Group, parent company of Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E).

El Paso Corp. has appointed Lisa A. Stewart, an Apache Corp. veteran, as president, Production and Non-regulated Operations. Stewart will oversee all of the Houston-based company’s production, midstream, power, marketing and petroleum businesses. Stewart, who will assume her position on Feb. 1, 2004, is currently executive vice president, Business Development and E&P Services for Apache Corp. Stewart earned a degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1981 and went to work for Cities Service Co. Since 1984 she has worked for Apache and has steadily progressed through various management positions. In her current role, she is responsible for strategic business activities, including acquisitions.

Michael Morris, the newly-appointed CEO at American Electric Power (AEP), last week said that he doesn’t anticipate the utility engaging in a “massive reduction” in size once he takes the helm next month, although he didn’t rule out realignment-related activity within the company.

ConocoPhillips has appointed Chris Conway as president of ConocoPhillips Gas and Power. He replaces J. Mike Stice, who was recently named president of ConocoPhillips Qatar. Conway joined the company 23 years ago and was most recently general manager of ConocoPhillips’ Americas crude supply and trading operations. He has also served as manager of the company’s specialty products unit and manager of strategy and business development for European refining and marketing. Stice, who was president of ConocoPhillips Gas and Power for five years, will lead all aspects of the company’s Qatar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, including the upstream and shipping aspects. In July, Qatar Petroleum and ConocoPhillips announced the signing of a Heads of Agreement for the development of Qatargas 3, a large-scale LNG project located in Qatar to service the U.S. natural gas market.

The court-appointed examiner reviewing Enron Corp. has concluded that the former trading firm engineered its financials with the use of special purpose entities (SPEs) and accounting techniques so that its published statements “diverged materially from Enron’s actual economic condition and performance.” The SPEs, said Neal Batson, apparently accounted for 96% of Enron’s $979 million in net income for 2000, and allowed it to report debt of only $10.2 billion instead of $22.1 billion.

In a second report on the complex financial dealings at Enron Corp., the court-appointed examiner has concluded that the former trading firm used six accounting techniques within its special purpose entities (SPE) to “engineer its financial statements so that they diverged materially from Enron’s actual economic condition and performance.” The SPEs apparently accounted for 96% of Enron’s $979 million in net income for 2000, and allowed it to report debt of only $10.2 billion instead of $22.1 billion.

ChevronTexaco has appointed Randy Curry as the president of ChevronTexaco Natural Gas, the company’s new wholesale natural gas marketing unit. Curry will report to Ray Wilcox, vice president of ChevronTexaco Corp. and president of ChevronTexaco North America Exploration and Production. “As ChevronTexaco re-enters this sector, our large equity supply base puts us in position to be a strong player in the North American market,” Wilcox said. Curry, 45, joined Texaco in 1988, and has held a variety of positions in the industry, including vice president of marketing at Texaco Natural Gas Inc. Most recently, Curry was president of Bridgeline Holdings LP, a ChevronTexaco joint venture natural gas pipeline and marketing company. El Paso Corp. announced two changes to its executive management group effective Feb. 1. Clark C. Smith, formerly president of Global Power, will become president of Trading, responsible for overseeing the implementation of El Paso’s announced plan to exit the trading business. The key component of that plan, announced Nov. 8, is the orderly liquidation of the company’s trading portfolio. Robert W. Baker, formerly senior vice president and deputy general counsel, will be promoted to president of Global Power, replacing Smith in that position. Baker will oversee the company’s domestic and international power generation activities. Both Smith and Baker will report to H. Brent Austin, president and COO of El Paso.