Mr. Abel has over 35 years experience in the oil and gas industry. Between 1968 and 1996, Mr. Abel held a number of domestic and international positions at Conoco, most recently serving as Chairman of Conoco Exploration and Production for Europe where he was responsible for all of Conoco's upstream activities in Europe and Russia. His prior roles at Conoco include Vice President and General Manager, Dubai Petroleum Company, Manager of Operations for the UK and Europe, Manager of Planning, Administration and Engineering for North America, Vice President and General Manager of Conoco's Engineering and Research Department, and Vice President and General Manager-Russia.
From 1997 through 1999, Mr. Abel served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, and Executive Vice President of Occidental Petroleum in Bakersfield, CA where he led Occidental's oil and gas operations through a major restructuring. During this time, Occidental Petroleum disposed of a number of less profitable assets, consummated major property exchanges, acquired significant new interests in several large producing assets, streamlined its organization, and completed the acquisition of the US Government's interests in the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve. During his tenure, Occidental Oil and Gas grew from one-quarter to two-thirds of Occidental Petroleum. Since retiring from Occidental in 1999, Mr. Abel has continued to actively participant in oil and gas exploration and development projects in the United States.
Mr. Abel received his undergraduate degree in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines and earned a Master of Science degree in Management from MIT's Sloan School of Management. He served in the US Army from 1966 to 1968, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Vietnam, and retired from military service at the rank of Captain.
Stephen P. Harrington will resign from his positions as Touchstone's CEO, Treasurer and Secretary, and as a director effective upon Mr. Abel's appointment on August 15, 2005. Mr. Harrington said, "We are excited to have an executive with such a distinguished and proven track record as Mr. Abel joining Touchstone. We have great confidence in his ability to lead Touchstone through its next phase of growth. We look forward to having Mr. Abel fully evaluate our current portfolio of assets and position Touchstone for the next step in its evolution."
Commenting on his new position, Mr. Abel stated, "Our industry is in the midst of significant change in the energy markets both internationally and domestically. I believe that great acquisition and development opportunities still exist, even in this environment of high oil and gas prices. I expect to position Touchstone in the future to take advantage of the current industry environment by engaging in a program of relatively low risk, high potential exploration projects, by participating in development projects in non-conventional gas resources, and by utilizing industry contacts to acquire projects from the larger independents and majors. I look forward to getting started on this exciting assignment."
About Touchstone Resources USA, Inc.
Touchstone Resources USA, Inc. is engaged in oil and gas exploration, development and production in Texas, Louisiana and other traditional oil and gas producing states in the Southern United States, as well as in New Zealand. Touchstone employs the most modern techniques, such as horizontal drilling, 3D seismic analytics and advanced, proprietary amplitude surveys to detect high potential, relatively low risk prospects geared more toward the shorter term as well as high yield, higher risk prospects for the longer term.
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained herein, including without limitation, statements regarding the Company's future financial position, business strategy, activity, budget, projected revenues, projected costs and plans and objectives of management for future operations are forward-looking statements. The words "estimate", "project", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will", "should", "could", or "would", the negative of such terms or similar expression are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results, events, or financial position to differ materially from those included within the forward-looking statements. These factors include but are not limited to our ability to identify, acquire and develop oil and gas properties, our assumptions about reserve prospects, the availability of capital resources, the price of oil, natural gas and other products and services, drilling risks, future processing volumes, and pipeline throughput as well as those factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date made and the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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