Wentworth, the East Africa and Rovuma Basin-focussed oil & gas company, announces the appointment of Gerold Fong as Vice President Exploration. Mr. Fong will lead the Company's geology and geophysics (G&G) reviews, analyses, and interpretations.
Mr. Fong is an Exploration Geophysicist with over 30 years of international and frontier experience in many basins worldwide. Most recently Mr. Fong was Vice President Caribbean region for Niko Resources where he directed a multi-disciplinary team responsible for all of the company's operations in Trinidad. As a co-founder and CEO of Voyager Energy, Mr.Fong was responsible for assembling an impressive exploration portfolio in Trinidad. This success led to the eventual sale of Voyager to Niko Resources in 2010. His regional exploration experience spans the globe and he has been involved in the evaluation and management of projects in the Caribbean, South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. In Africa he has previous experience in the evaluation of projects in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique.
Mr. Fong started his career in 1982 and throughout his career has held technical and management positions with a number of large and mid size international exploration companies. Mr. Fong has also served as an International Exploration consultant and has advised many independent Canadian oil and gas companies on their international exploration strategy. Mr. Fong holds a B.sc. in Geophysics from the University of Calgary and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientist of Alberta.
He will represent Wentworth at concession operating and technical committee meetings as well as provide operating and technical support during exploration and development drilling. Mr Fong will help develop and implement the Company's overall upstream growth strategy and will report directly to Managing Director, Geoff Bury.
This appointment comes in response to:
- the need for development drilling of the Mnazi Bay and Msimbati Gas Fields in Tanzania;
- the need for accelerated exploration of the entire Mnazi Bay concession in order to address future local and regional demand for natural gas;
- increased G&G and drilling programmes recently approved for the Onshore Rovuma concession in Mozambique; and
- M&A and other corporate transaction opportunities the Company reviews on a regular basis.
Commenting on the appointment, Geoff Bury, Managing Director said: "We are delighted to welcome Gerold to our management team as he brings extensive international and East Africa-specific upstream expertise and more than 30 years of industry experience to the Company. Gerold is a successful explorationist and leader, and this combination will serve us well. Under Gerold's guidance we will realise the potential of our Rovuma Basin portfolio and we will deliver on our commitment to maximize gas production and discover additional hydrocarbon resources for future production."
