Board

Darren W. Woods, 51, currently president of ExxonMobil Corp., will succeed Rex W. Tillerson as chairman and CEO effective Jan. 1, the board announced Wednesday, one day after Tillerson was nominated by President-elect Trump to become secretary of state.

Canadian natural gas producers will cut their losses this year but still show red ink on their books, an Ottawa business research agency said Thursday.

In the wake of a failed merger with Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE), an apparent attempt to oust CEO Alan Armstrong at the Williams Companies Inc. has failed and led to the resignation of six of its 13 board members, including the chairman.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s directors were rebuked on Wednesday at the annual meeting when a proxy measure was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders that would allow outsiders to be nominated to the board. The measure, according to proponents, could allow a climate change activist eventually to become a director.

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) board of directors on Friday named Vicki Hollub CEO of the company as was previously announced as part of the exploration/production company’s succession plan (see Daily GPI,Dec. 10, 2015). Named a director on the board in December, the 35-year Oxy veteran Hollub succeeds Stephen Chazen, who stepped down as CEO at Oxy’s annual shareholder meeting. Hollub had been named president/COO last year and the successor to Chazen when he retired.

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) board of directors on Friday named Vicki Hollub CEO of the company as was previously announced as part of the exploration/production company’s succession plan (see Daily GPI,Dec. 10, 2015). Named a director on the board in December, the 35-year Oxy veteran Hollub succeeds Stephen Chazen, who stepped down as CEO at Oxy’s annual shareholder meeting. Hollub had been named president/COO last year and the successor to Chazen when he retired.

Cheniere Energy Inc. co-founder and former CEO Charif Souki has resigned from the company’s board of directors, Cheniere disclosed in a regulatory filing. Souki was ousted from the CEO post late last year after he reportedly tangled with activist investor Carl Icahn, the company’s largest shareholder (see Daily GPI,Dec. 14, 2015). Neal A. Shear is interim president and CEO.Andrea Botta had replaced Souki as board chairman.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board(EQB) has passed by a vote of 15-4 a package of oil and natural gas drilling regulations. The independent board adopts and reviews environmental regulations written by the stateDepartment of Environmental Protection (DEP), which worked on the revisions for more than four years. The package includes, among other things, changes for well sites, protection of water resources and public resources, and they address health, safety, data management and landowner concerns. DEP had sent the rulemaking, which includes separate regulations for the conventional and unconventional industries, to the EQB in January (see Shale Daily,Jan. 6). The package will now be sent to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the state House and Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committees for review. The DEP expects the rules to be enacted later this year.

The safety of Canadian long-distance pipelines has improved but the National Energy Board (NEB) needs better information management systems to ensure good performance, a federal record-keeping agency said Tuesday.