Smith Named CFO of Wintershall DEA

Paul Smith has been appointed as future chief financial officer (CFO) and member of the management board of European exploration and production company Wintershall DEA, BASF and LetterOne announced on Tuesday.

The appointment will take effect on closing of the merger of Wintershall and DEA, expected in the first half of 2019 subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Smith brings to the position more than 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, having worked for Vesta Energy, Talisman Energy and BP, and having held positions in Calgary, Trinidad and Tobago, London, Aberdeen and Russia. For the last two years he has been the CFO and executive vice president of corporate development at Vesta Energy, a private oil and gas company based in Calgary.

“I am tremendously excited to be joining Wintershall DEA and to be part of the creation of the largest independent exploration and production company in Europe. The combined portfolio and scale of Wintershall DEA will provide significant potential for sustainable, long-term growth,” Smith said.

Wintershall DEA will have exploration and production activity in 13 countries across Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. The combined business would have had pro-forma production of approximately 575,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2017, almost 70 percent of which comes from natural gas. Production is expected to rise to between 750,000 and 800,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the early 2020s as the company executes its business plan.

Prior to Vesta Smith was the CFO of Calgary-based international independent Talisman Energy. Before becoming CFO, he was accountable for Talisman’s North American operations. For the first 15 years of his career, Smith was employed in a variety of commercial, finance and operational leadership roles at BP. These include senior vice president West Siberia at TNK-BP, business unit leader of BP’s North Sea activity, CFO of BP’s business in Trinidad and Tobago, and member of the team appointed to lead the integration of BP and Amoco.