EnQuest PLC has appointed Neil McCulloch as president, North Sea, with effect from 1 April. He will succeed David Heslop, who retires from his role as managing director UKCS

McCulloch has held a number of senior positions in the oil and gas sector, and joins EnQuest from international oil and gas company OMV AG, where he had the global role of senior vice president production & engineering.

Prior to this, he spent 11 years with BG Group in a range of senior UK and international roles, most recently as vice president & asset general manager, UK Upstream, with accountability for the delivery of BG’s UK North Sea business.

Heslop is to continue to support EnQuest in an advisory capacity or on special projects.

EnQuest is currently investing £4bn in the one of the largest new oil fields in the North Sea, which could employ up to 20,000 in the construction phase and create 1000 operational jobs over its expected 25-year lifetime.

The 140m-barrel Kraken development will be EnQuest’s sixth production hub in the UK North Sea.

As operator, EnQuest will develop the project - located in the East Shetland basin, about 125km east of the Shetland Islands - on behalf of itself and its partners.

Around 80% of the investment will be in the UK, said the company, which estimates that the project will generate future revenue of £9 billion. Gross peak oil production is expected to exceed 50k barrels of oil per day, with first oil production in 2016/2017.

The Kraken development has two separate heavy oil fields, both of which will benefit from UK government tax measures to stimulate investment in the UK North Sea, said EnQuest, which claims to be the largest independent North Sea producer.