Before joining BHPB, Yeager was ExxonMobil Development vice president, with responsibility for major joint venture projects. This included 22 projects worldwide, each with capital expenditure of $US500 million ($A663.7 million) or more. Before this, he was senior vice president for ExxonMobil affiliate Imperial Oil, where he was responsible for all aspects of their upstream oil and gas business.

BHPB chief executive Chip Goodyear said the appointment was a welcome addition to the company’s existing petroleum expertise.

“We are very pleased to have someone with Mike’s strong international petroleum background and deep development and operating capability leading our petroleum business,” Goodyear said.

“We have a significant petroleum project pipeline to develop and operate and Mike has the right combination of skills to lead this part of our business into the next stage of development. Along with our track record of exploration success and our developing gas business, Mike and his team have the opportunity to create real long-term sustainable growth for our company.”

Yeager will become a member of BHPB’s office of the chief executive and will be based in Houston, Texas.

Goodyear also thanked Aiken for his “substantial contribution” to the company.

“Phil has led our Energy team through major changes over the last nine years,” Goodyear said.

“Under his leadership, we have moved from being a predominantly Australian-based producer to an international energy company with operations in Algeria, Pakistan, Trinidad, the UK and the Gulf of Mexico. Phil has also represented the company with our partners and customers around the globe. He will continue to serve us in this important capacity until his retirement and provide senior representation for BHP Billiton’s activities in London.”

Unfortunately, Aiken will also be remembered for being in charge of BHPB’s Iraq operations at the time sanctions were breached under the United Nation’s oil-for-food program.

In other news, BHPB chairman Don Argus on Wednesday also announced the appointment of two additional non-executive directors, Paul Anderson and Jacques Nasser, effective June 6.

Anderson was managing director and CEO of BHPB from 1998 to 2002, and presided over the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001. He is currently chairman of Duke Energy, having relinquished the CEO role following Duke’s recent merger with Cinergy.

Nasser had a 33-year career with the Ford Motor Company in various leadership positions in Europe, Australia, Asia, South America and the United States. He served as CEO of Ford from 1998-2001.