Ian Hatton BSc (Hons) - Chief Executive Officer

Ian Hatton commenced his career with Phillips Petroleum Company in 1979 and has twenty-two years experience in the NW Europe offshore sector. At Phillips Petroleum he developed an expertise in evaluation of Chalk Group reservoirs, developing an innovative and successful appraisal model for the Joanne Field taking it from sub-economic to commercial status. He joined Kerr-McGee Oil (UK) PLC in 1984, ultimately being appointed to the position of Director of Exploration, with responsibility for building and maintaining business relationships with UK and other government departments and partner companies. He was responsible, together with former fellow Eclipse Director Stephen Knight, for managing the project to drill an exploratory well in Lyme Bay block 97/12. For this work he received an award by Kerr-McGee for "leadership in environmental excellence" for managing all work associated with conducting environmental base line analyses and the drilling of well 97/12-1 in Lyme Bay during 1995. He was involved in extensive interest group consultation, media interviews, and local government liaison.

Ian left Kerr-McGee in February 1999 and subsequently founded Eclipse Energy and was the originator of the business concept. He performed the initial research and concept formulation, and drafted the Company Business Plan. He presented the Company's Business Model to the UK's Department of Trade and Industry in March 1999. Subsequently he has worked to recruit the management team and to establish business relationships for Eclipse. He received his B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Geology from the CNAA/Polytechnic of North London in 1979, and continued with part-time PhD research on Chalk Group reservoirs through the CNAA / Open University.