Bakheet Al Katheeri to head up Mubadala Petroleum

Mr Al Katheeri, formerly Mubadala Petroleum’s chief growth officer and an 18-year energy industry veteran, succeeds Musabbeh Al Kaabi as CEO of the upstream oil and gas exploration and production company.

Mubadala Petroleum has appointed Bakheet Al Katheeri as chief executive. Courtesy Mubadala Petroleum

Mubadala Petroleum has announced the appointment of Bakheet Al Katheeri as its new chief executive, as the reorganisation of Mubadala Investment Company’s restructured energy division continues.

Mr Al Katheeri, formerly Mubadala Petroleum’s chief growth officer and an 18-year energy industry veteran, succeeds Musabbeh Al Kaabi as chief executive of the upstream oil and gas exploration and production company.

The move follows Mr Al Kaabi’s appointment as the head of Mubadala Investment Company’s new US$40 billion petroleum and petrochemicals portfolio, unveiled last month, which was created following the merger of Mubadala Development with the International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic).

The new division includes Mubadala Petroleum’s mostly Asian upstream operations alongside Ipic’s much larger, predominantly downstream assets.

“Our efforts over the last two years in reducing the company’s cost base and increasing the efficiency of our operations, against a very challenging market environment, have positioned us well to take advantage of this period of more stable prices,” Mr Al Katheeri said.

“We are looking for new opportunities to add to our existing production, and the development projects we expect to bring forward in the near future.”

Amid the lower oil price environment of the past two years Mubadala Petroleum has cut costs by renegotiating contracts with its main oil services partner, Petrofac. It has also reduced drilling expenses by 55 per cent through innovations such as geosteering horizontal drilling techniques, as well as operational efforts such as cutting US$1 million a year by sharing and reorganising its helicopter use.

Before joining Mubadala Petroleum, Mr Al Katheeri worked at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc).

As a manager of production and facilities engineering for Adnoc’s offshore operators, he coordinated aggregate production of more than 1 million barrels daily.

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