Oil and gas explorer and producer PetroLatina Energy (whose ticker code is PELE) has appointed Dutchman Rudolph Berends as its new chief executive officer.

Berends arrives with Latin American experience under his belt, joining as he does from Colombia and Peru-focused oil and gas producer Mercantile International Petroleum. He transformed that business from debts of $65 million (£33 million) to operating profits and sold it to a private buyer last year.

After gaining a doctorate in geophysics, Berends launched his career as an ‘explorationist’ for Shell in the 1970s, then spent 15 of his 34 years in the oil and gas industry in Latin America, notably also as president of German-owned Preussag Energie Americas, which was sold in 2001.

PetroLatina’s executive chairman, Greg Smith, is delighted with the appointment. ‘Rudolph not only has a significant amount of relevant experience in oil and gas exploration, development and production in Latin America, he also has a solid track record of successfully developing and growing oil and gas businesses,’ he says.
PetroLatina has strong revenues from its oil and gas production, as well as some exploration and development prospects yet to come through.

PetroLatina Energy	AIM	£7.57m	17.25p	0.00p
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Reserve hike at PetroLatina			25/06/2008
New backing for PetroLatina			25/04/2008
PetroLatina wins time and money			28/11/2007
PELE scores with Berends			03/04/2007