VANCOUVER, Jan. 31 /CNW/ - Ivanhoe Energy Inc.'s (NASDAQ: IVAN and TSX: IE) Board of Directors today announced that Joseph Gasca has been elevated to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Gasca, Ivanhoe Energy's current President and Chief Operating Officer, joined the company in July 2006 from BG Group in the United Kingdom where he was General Manager of Operations with global responsibilities for all of BG Group's businesses, which are located in 20 countries over five continents.
In addition to his senior roles at BG Group, Mr. Gasca's 27 years of oil and gas experience include a 22-year career with Texaco Inc. While at Texaco, Mr. Gasca held a number of positions, most recently as Vice President of Commercial Development, where he directed technology development and provided global technical support to Texaco's upstream organization. While at Texaco he was also Advisor to the President of the Worldwide Upstream Organization; the Senior Executive in Scotland managing Texaco's North Sea assets, and he held a number of leadership and engineering positions in Texas and Louisiana.
"Joe has confirmed to the board that he is an excellent choice for CEO and we are pleased to announce our unanimous decision," said Robert Abboud, Independent Co-Chairman and Lead Director. "After six months with the company as President and COO, he has gained our confidence that he is the right person to lead Ivanhoe Energy through the next phase of its growth."
David Martin, Executive Co-Chairman, added, "We believe that Joe brings the necessary skills and ability to guide the company as we move towards the commercialization of our heavy oil upgrading technology. We are looking to him to focus the company's efforts and align our organization around its implementation."
Joseph Gasca said, "I am excited to lead Ivanhoe Energy at this stage in its development. Our HTL technology has the potential to vault the company into a leadership position among heavy oil producers. My vision for the company is to build a strong and sustainable heavy oil business that is based on our unique technology. Ivanhoe Energy's state-of-the-art technology, combined with its very experienced board of directors and management team, give me the confidence that the HTL technology will be successfully commercialized and implemented around the world."
Ivanhoe Energy is an independent international oil and gas development and production company focused on pursuing long-term growth in its reserves and production using advanced technologies, including its proprietary heavy oil upgrading process (HTL). Core operations are in the United States and China, with business development opportunities worldwide. Ivanhoe Energy trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market with the ticker symbol IVAN and on the Toronto Stock Exchange with the symbol IE.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document includes forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the potential benefits of Ivanhoe Energy's heavy oil upgrading technology, the potential for commercialization and future application of the heavy oil upgrading technology and other statements which are not historical facts. When used in this document, the words such as "could," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "potential," "should," and similar expressions relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Although Ivanhoe Energy believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include the potential that the company's projects will experience technological and mechanical difficulties, the HTL process to upgrade bitumen and heavy oil may not be commercially viable, competition, changes in product prices, our ability to raise capital as and when required and other risks disclosed in Ivanhoe Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR and the Canadian Securities Commissions on SEDAR.
