Nido Petroleum names new president-CEO

Australia-based Nido Petroleum Ltd. has recently appointed Former Energy Undersecretary and Merritt Partners managing director Jocot de Dios as its new president and chief executive officer.

Nido is one of the most active exploration and production companies in the Philippines and the second biggest acreage holder after PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOC EC).

The company’s gross exploration area in the NW Palawan basin is placed at over three million hectares.

“Nido’s investment in the Northwest Palawan basin signifies its unqualified and unwavering faith and confidence in the country’s upstream sector and the government, particularly the Department of Energy,” De Dios said.

“As president and CEO, I will continue to build on the initiatives undertaken by the company which are to focus on the Philippines’ Palawan Basin and progress the Galoc oil field development. While we are very excited about Galoc, we are also very keen to pursue our exploration activities in the other areas that we hold in the Philippines. Of course this will not stop us from exploring other opportunities in the region. Asia is still relatively unexplored and given the high oil price environment, we see this as an opportunity to expand, capture and develop an exploration portfolio across the region,” he said.

De Dios succeeds David Whitby who has moved on to become chairman of the company. Nido is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia.

With his extensive experience in the energy field and being a former Undersecretary of the Department of Energy from 2001 to 2004, he led the preparation of the country’s Philippine Energy Plan.

He also guided the promulgation of the rules for the Philippine Power Sector Reform Law and the interim rules for the Philippine Downstream Natural Gas Industry.