Seadrill Ltd. (SDRL.L) said Tuesday that its board on mutual agreement with the chief executive officer of Seadrill Management, Alf Thorkildsen, has decided to terminate his contract. Fredrik Halvorsen, currently CEO of Archer Limited, has been appointed to succeed Thorkildsen. The firm is also seeking to relocate Seadrill Management's service function.
Thorkildsen will remain on the Board of North Atlantic Drilling Limited, a majority owned subsidiary of Seadrill.
John Fredriksen, Chairman of the Board of Directors said, "Alf joined us as part of the Smedvig acquisition in 2006 and has been an integral part of the Seadrill growth story. Alf has worked very closely with the Board of Directors, has overseen significant expansion of the company and has established an experienced management team.
As North Atlantic Drilling is now seeking a US listing, the company is looking to further develop the organization in line with its strategy.
Fredrik Halvorsen, the new CEO, has worked closely with the Board and senior management of Seadrill in his current roles with Frontline Corporate Services and Archer. He has been a director of Archer since 2010, stepping in as interim CEO of Archer in January. He is also a director of Deep Sea Supply and Aktiv Kapital.
Prior to this, Halvorsen held several roles including CEO of Tandberg ASA, and senior positions at Cisco Systems Inc. as well as McKinsey & Co.
Seadrill also announced plans to implement a new management structure to ensure safe and efficient operations and support its global strategy.
Since acquiring Smedvig ASA in 2006, Seadrill has operated its management service company Seadrill Management AS out of Stavanger, Norway. The company has regional operational centers with more than 400 people employed onshore in Houston, Rio, Singapore, and Dubai.
In June, North Atlantic Drilling Limited was separated from Seadrill Management to create an operational centre for the North Atlantic, managed out of Stavanger.
Due to these changes, Seadrill has decided that it can further improve its efficiency by reducing the size of Seadrill Management and by moving some functions to operating regions.
Also, the firm believes that Seadrill Management's location in Stavanger may restrict Seadrill's growth plans, for which access to qualified personnel is critical. Additionally, the Norwegian cost level and distance from Seadrill's core markets make travel and logistics cumbersome when managing global operations.
Thus, the Board has decided to explore establishing a new management service function in an alternative location. Locations such as London, Dubai, Singapore and Houston are under consideration and a final decision is expected before year end.
The stock closed up 0.8 percent at 40.15 pence on Tuesday on a volume of 1.54 million shares.
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