Tullow Oil appoints Delonex boss Rahul Dhir as new CEO

Tullow Oil has appointed Rahul Dhir - currently the chief executive officer of Africa-focused oil and gas company Delonex - as its new CEO with effect from 1 July.

Prior to Delonex, Dhir served as managing director and CEO of Cairn India from its IPO in 2006 until 2012. Tullow said that during his tenure, Cairn India delivered operated production of over 200,000 barrels of oil per day with operating costs of less than $5 per barrel of oil.

Cairn India also successfully delivered over $5 billion of development projects including the world's longest heated pipeline at a finding and development cost of less than $5 per barrel of oil, Tullow added.

Executive chair Dorothy Thompson said: "His oil & gas, financial and African experience combined with his record of strong leadership made him the stand-out candidate for the board."

In March, Tullow Oil said it swung to a full year pre-tax loss of $1.6bn driven by $2bn in exploration writeoffs, suspended its dividend and warned future results would be "adversely" hit by sustained oil prices at current levels.

Tullow also said that it would axe more than a third of its workforce and would try to raise $1bn from portfolio management activities.