(Sharecast News) - International oil and gas company PetroTal announced the appointment of José Contreras as its senior-vice president of operations on Tuesday, effective from 1 May.

The AIM-traded firm said the appointment of Contreras would bring a "wealth of experience" to the company, with more than 25 years working on managing "large and complex" field and technical upstream operations for various sized energy companies.

It said Contreras previously held various executive roles in the international oil and gas industry since 2017.

Those roles ranged from guiding international safety, security, and sustainability performance for projects and drilling, ensuring safe and efficient upstream and midstream onshore operations in the United States, while implementing bottom line improvement programmes, to managing low-carbon ammonia-hydrogen new value chain opportunities.

Contreras holds a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and a Master of Science in petroleum engineering and project development from the Institut Français du Pétrole.

"On behalf of the management team and board we want to extend a warm welcome to Mr. Contreras," said president and chief executive officer Manuel Pablo Zuniga-Pflucker.

"José has a very impressive background in energy and complements our existing leadership team extremely well.

"José is based in the Houston area and will be integral to building out future operating and development plans with the team in Lima and Houston."

At 1132 BST, shares in PetroTal were up 0.71% in London, at 46.83p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.