In a statement today, Great Artesian said it has appointed Andrew Carroll, formerly of AGL Energy, to the role after Shaw resigned from the top job and as a director of the company as of Friday.

Chairman Peter Hopkins thanked Shaw for his “invaluable contribution” to the company during its early years.

“As Great Artesian’s second-largest shareholder, Dr Shaw remains vitally interested in its ongoing success,” he said.

Shaw’s resignation comes after he struck a deal at the end of last year with majority shareholder Beach Petroleum, where he was obliged to leave Great Artesian on March 31.

Carroll most recently worked with AGL Energy to help establish its upstream unit. Before that, he worked with Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia, where he was involved in purchasing interests in the Wandoo field.

Prior to this, he was Interoil’s general manager of exploration and production, during which time he helped to establish the North American company’s business unit in Papua New Guinea.

Carroll said Great Artesian was currently in an “exciting phase” of development.

“I believe there is significant growth potential for the company, with its excellent asset base, active exploration programs, gas commercialisation, new licences and other business development opportunities,” he said.

In another reshuffle, the company has promoted exploration manager Chris Carty to the position of technical director.

Move into the Gippsland Basin

The company now claims to hold the most offshore exploration acreage in the Gippsland Basin, after winning two new permits VIC/P63 and VIC/P64, which it said complements its recently awarded T/46P permit in the adjacent Tasmanian waters.

“The addition of these areas is a continuation of Great Artesian’s ‘brownfield’ exploration philosophy of searching for additional hydrocarbons in mature petroleum provinces,” Great Artesian said.

“The exploration concept (on the southern margin of the Gippsland Basin) is similar to the increasingly successful play that Great Artesian is pursuing on the western margin of

South Australia’s onshore Cooper Basin, targeting hydrocarbons that are trapped as they migrate away from the main basin depocentre towards the basin margin.”

Under the licence terms, Great Artesian has agreed to reprocess existing seismic, as well as shoot new data over a 1500 line km area.