(PRNewsfoto/Talos Energy)

Sergio Maiworm, CFO of Talos Energy, has resigned to pursue a new (as yet unnamed) opportunity. Greg Babcock, currently the Chief Accounting Officer, has been appointed interim CFO, while the company conducts a search for a permanent CFO.

Talos is an offshore E&P operator with assets in the United States Gulf of Mexico and offshore Mexico. It has a market capitalization of $1.5 billion. Carlos Slim, the richest person in Latin America, owns 24% of the stock of the company.

In March, the company appointed Paul Goodfellow, a long-time Shell executive, as its new CEO.

Mr. Maiworm joined the company in April 2018 as its Director of Finance and Investor Relations. He has been the CFO since April 2024. Between 2013-2015 he worked for Shell in their global M&A group. He has also worked at Transocean and ION Geophysical. As a result of his resignation, Mr. Maiworm will not receive any additional compensation and forfeits all unvested restricted stock units.

Mr. Babcock joined Talos in 2014. Like Mr. Maiworm, he started his career at Deloitte & Touche.

Tim Duncan, the former CEO, left abruptly in August 2024. He founded the company in 2013 and took it public in May 2018 via a reverse takeover of Stone Energy. It’s not clear why Mr. Duncan was ousted, though the predominant rumor was a lagging stock price.  Mr. Duncan left with a cash severance of $4.8 million.

The stock price of Talos is down about 25% since the departure of Mr. Duncan.

SEC filing 8-K – Talos CFO resigns

Luca Paciolo – circa 1500 – “The Father of Accounting”

Bill Bullock, CFO of ConocoPhillips (‘COP’), is retiring, effective June 1, 2025. He will be succeeded by Andy O’Brien, currently Senior VP, Strategy, Commercial, Sustainability and Technology.

COP has revenues of $55 billion and a market capitalization of $117 billion. It is a big producer in the Permian Basin and Alaska. The company also has minority interests in producing assets in China, Libya, Norway and Qatar.

Mr. Bullock joined COP in 1986 and became CFO in August 2020. Like his predecessor, Don Wallette, Mr. Bullock has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Both men retired after 39 years at the company.

Mr O’Brien has also spent all his career at COP. He began his career at Conoco in 1997 in the UK and has served in a variety of finance, planning and strategy roles in the UK, Canada, Alaska and Houston. Mr. O’Brien is a chartered management accountant and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Mr. Bullock had a base salary of $1.1 million in 2024. With his retirement, there are now only two CFO’s at publicly-traded companies in the Houston-area with a base salary over $1 million (Kathy Mikells at ExxonMobil and Eimear Bonner at Chevron). In his previous role, Mr. O’Brien had a base salary of $726,000. The company did not disclose any new compensation arrangements as a result of his promotion.

SEC filing – 8-K ConocoPhillips appoints O’Brien as CFO

APA Corporation has promoted Ben Rodgers to be its CFO, effective May, 12. He is currently SVP, Finance and Treasury. Current CFO, Steve Riney, will continue in his role as President, overseeing asset development and operations.

APA, formerly known as Apache, has a market capitalization of $5.5 billion. It has E&P operations in the Permian Basin, Egypt and the UK sector of the North Sea

Mr. Rodgers joined APA in May 2018. A few months later, he became CFO of Altus Midstream when it was carved out of APA to become a separate publicly-traded company. Altus held the midstream assets of the Alpine High field of APA. While Mr. Rodgers was the CFO of Altus, he also remained Treasurer of APA. Both companies ended up taking multi-billion dollar write-downs on that development.

Mr. Rodgers remained CFO until Altus was taken over by EagleClaw Midstream in 2022. The combined business was renamed Kinetik Holdings and Mr. Rodgers became a non-exec director of that company. He started his career at Ernst & Young and later worked in the Investment Banking division of JP Morgan. Mr. Rodgers has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and a MBA from the University of Texas.

Mr. Rodgers will receive a base salary of $625,000

Mr. Riney joined the company as its CFO in 2015. Previously, he was with BP and Amoco. To assist Mr. Riney, the company has added two executives to help oversee operations. Shad Frazier joins from Endeavor Energy as senior VP, US Onshore Operations. Donald Martin joins as VP, Decommissioning from Spirit Energy.

Back in January, Clay Bretches, Executive VP. Operations, announced he would retire, effective July 1.

SEC filing – 8-K APA CFO announcement

Craig Owen, CFO of Prairie Operating Co, has resigned, effective April 1, 2025. He will be replaced by Greg Patton, currently the VP of Commercial Development.

The company went public on the Nasdaq in December 2023 following a reverse takeover of a cryptocurrency mining company called Creek Road Miners. It currently has a market cap of $145 million.

The company, based in Houston, is involved in Exploration and Production, with its primary focus in the Niobrara and Codell formations of the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin. It recently acquired more assets in that basin for $603 million. The crypto mining assets were sold shortly after Prairie went public.

Mr. Owen has been the CFO since May 2023. Prior to that, he was the CFO of Rosehill Resources, a publicly-traded company. He also spent many years each at Southwestern Energy, Anadarko and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Patten joined the company in March 2024. He was previously Senior VP of Corporate Development at Great Western Petroleum and CFO of Trigger Energy. Compensation for Mr. Patton has yet to be determined.

SEC filing – 8-K – Prairie Operating CFO

Evan Kiefer, CFO and Treasurer of Black Stone Minerals, has stepped down with immediate effect.  He has been replaced by Taylor DeWalch as CFO and Dawn Smajstrla as Treasurer.

BSM has its head office in downtown Houston and is one of the largest owners and managers of oil and gas mineral rights in the USA. It has a market capitalization of $3.3 billion. The production underlying the mineral rights is primarily gas and the company hedges the majority of its production. As a result, its share price is not very volatile (52 week range is $14.88 – $18.55).

What’s strange about the announcement is that Mr. Kiefer spent 8 months as interim CFO, but only 7 months as the permanent CFO! Mr. Kiefer joined BSM (technically, the General Partner of BSM) in 2013 as a Financial Analyst. He was appointed interim CFO in March 2023 after the departure of Jeff Wood. He was made permanent CFO in October 2023.

Mr. Kiefer will receive severance of

• cash payment of $601, 775 (1x annual salary of $250,000 plus 1x target bonus of $250,000, plus pro-rated bonus for 2024)
• accelerated vesting of 3,628 common units (worth approx $50,000)
• accelerated vesting of 12,179 performance units ($200,000)
• elimination of employment-based forfeiture restrictions on 50,893 performance units ($815,000)

Mr. DeWalch joined the company in February 2023 as Director, Strategy & Asset Development. He is a Petroleum Engineer by training and previously worked in engineering roles at Anadarko, Unitex Oil & Gas and Callon Petroleum. Mr. DeWalch is the son of Mark DeWalch, a non-exec director of the company, who has a background in finance and banking. DeWalch Jr. will receive a base salary of $310,000.

Ms. Smajstrla joined BSM in 2015 as the Chief Accounting Officer. She also worked at Anadarko, as well as Goodrich Petroleum and Lime Rock Resources.

SEC filing – 8-K Black Stone CFO severance

Marathon Oil, based in west Houston, has appointed Rob White as its new CFO, effective May 1, 2024. He replaces Dane Whitehead, who told the company he intends to retire on July 1.

Marathon Oil was originally part of Standard Oil, controlled by John Rockefeller.  In 1911, the US Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil be dissolved and split into 34 companies. One of those companies was The Ohio Oil Company, which was later renamed as Marathon Oil.

In 2011, the refining and marketing assets were spun off into a separate entity called Marathon Petroleum (MPC). That company is based in Ohio.

Marathon has a market cap of $14 billion. It has a relatively small presence in the Permian Basin (12% of revenues). Most of its production comes from the Eagle Ford (40%) and Bakken (35%) basins. The Eagle Ford Basin, in particular, produces relatively more gas than oil. As a result of these factors, Marathon trades at a lower multiple than its peers.

Mr. White joined the company in 1991 and has served as the VP, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer since March 2022. He will receive a base salary of $500,000.

Zach Dailey has been promoted to VP, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, to replace Mr. White. Mr. Daily joined Marathon in 2015 and is currently the VP, Internal Audit. Mr. White also held that position before becoming the CAO. Prior to joining Marathon, Mr. Dailey worked at Linn Energy, Berry Petroleum and Morgan Keegan. Mr. Dailey will receive a base salary of $350,000.

Mr. Whitehead, 62, joined Marathon as its CFO in March 2017. Prior to that, he was CFO of EP Energy Corp for 5 years.

SEC filing – 8-K – Marathon CFO