Gerrits, a University of Queensland graduate in 1985, started with Shell as an exploration geologist before rising through the ranks as seismic interpreter at its UK E&P unit, Northeast Mediterranean project manager in Egypt and general manager exploration in Libya before landing in Singapore as VP exploration - Asia and Australia.

 

In 2015 he was appointed as VP strategy and portfolio upstream for Shell International and is currently VP strategy & portfolio upstream.

 

He replaces Ceri Powell, who will take on a new role in Asia as managing director of Brunei Shell Petroleum in March once she steps down from her current role on February 13.

 

Powell, who featured on Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women list twice having joined Shell in 1990, was a vocal supporter for strengthening female involvement in the sector.

 

With Powell having enacted marked cutbacks in exploration since oil prices crashed mid-2014, Gerrits may usher in a new era of optimism for a company now settled in from its $US54 billion takeover of Queensland Curtis operator BG Group.

 

Though the company slashed its exploration budget to less than $2 billion a year from around $5 billion after prices started falling in 2014, Shell is now looking for new gas for its hugely lucrative integrated gas business, which it launched as a new standalone division in November 2015 when it believed the downturn would be "prolonged".

 

While Rystad Energy revealed this week that global offshore exploration had hit lows not seen since the 1940s, new rounds in frontier areas provided some hope, and a growing band of analysts see a gradual increase in oil prices this year and next which could spur investment.

 

Powell recently said Shell would move away from complex and costly exploration jaunts in frontier areas like Alaska to places closer to existing production like Malaysia and Brunei.

 

Shell gave up on Arctic exploration after writing down $7 billion having failed to find commercial amounts of oil or gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.

 

The company also decided to plug the second of two wildcat exploration wells off Nova Scotia last week, setting back the province's dream of offshore riches, though analysts say is still early days for the region.

 

"New offshore projects would set the stage for new industrial developments, and offer opportunities for exporting the surplus," Nova Scotia's provincial government recently.