|
Dr. Bennett has extensive technical operational and executive experience and has enjoyed a highly successful 30-year career creating significant value for oil and gas companies based in Australasia Britain and Canada. He is a founder of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. and was CEO from 1997 to 2005. During his tenure he was responsible for acquiring operating and joint venturing a significant exploration portfolio in the Timor Sea New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. He also headed the technical team that discovered several of the new oil and gas fields currently under development in New Zealand's Taranaki Basin. In Papua New Guinea's Foreland Basin Dr. Bennett led the discovery of the Douglas gas/condensate field and he is instrumental in the potential commercialization via a new pipeline to Alcan's alumina refinery in Gove Australia. In earlier years with New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd. Dr. Bennett led the team that discovered the highly profitable onshore Ngatoro and the major Kupe South offshore gas/condensate fields in the Taranaki. Dr. Bennett received a Bachelor of Arts (Natural Sciences) from Cambridge University in 1968 a Master of Science in Exploration Geophysics from the University of Leeds and in 1973 a doctorate in Geophysics from the Australian National University with post-doctoral work at the University of Texas (Dallas). | 