To be based in Jakarta, Christenson will be responsible for Santos’ Indonesian operations which include an increasing exploration program and in recent weeks have yielded the Jeruk oil discovery and the Kutei Basin gas find.

He has spent more than six years with US oil major Unocal where he was most recently general manager for Unocal Makassar Ltd and senior vice president Deepwater Exploration and Production in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Christenson was responsible for developing Indonesia’s first deepwater oil and gas field for Unocal. He also headed the group that has discovered more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent since mid 1998 and drilled more than 100 deepwater wells.

Christenson has also worked for British Gas and Tenneco Oil. He has more than 15 years of international oil and gas management experience in Asia and Africa, said Santos managing director John Ellice-Flint.

“Gary brings to Santos a wealth of international experience in exploration and production and a strong understanding of the Indonesian E&P industry”, Ellice-Flint said.

“Indonesia is a critical part of Santos’ growth program and it is therefore appropriate to appoint someone of Gary’s calibre to head this strongly developing part of our business.”