Oil and gas industry veteran Steven Keenan, who is credited with the Alpine High shale discovery for Apache Corp, resigned from his position as senior vice president of Worldwide Exploration, the company said.
Houston-based Apache told Reuters Keenan’s resignation is not connected to the well the company is currently drilling offshore in Suriname. The company said, “the drill bit is still above the first target zone in the Suriname well.”
Suriname’s state oil company Staatsolie signed a production sharing agreement with Apache seven years ago, Kallanish Energy reports.
Keenan has overseen the company’s exploration operations, unconventional resources technology team and operations in the Delaware Basin since joining Apache five years ago.
Keenan is widely credited with the Alpine High find in West Texas in 2016. When Alpine High was discovered Apache’s shares spiked as much as 14% with CEO John Christmann calling it a “world class resource.”
However, more recently, Alpine High has struggled due to lower gas prices, with the company saying it would reassign capital expenditure to other areas, Reuters reported.
Apache had hired Keenan from EOG in 2014, where he had worked on the Eagle Ford Shale play.
This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.