By Toyin Akinosho, in Cape Town
Chevron Corporation has announced that Kevin McLachlan will become its Vice President of Exploration, 24 hours after TOTALEnergies named his replacement.
Chevron says that McLachlan, who was TOTAL’s Senior Vice President Exploration between 2015 and 2025, will start work effective November 1, 2025, “overseeing the company’s worldwide exploration programme”. McLachlan will be based in Houston, succeeding Liz Schwarze, “who is retiring in February after 36 years of service to the company”.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Nicola Mavilla, the geoscientist hired from ENI to replace McLachlan at TOTAL, is also starting work at the French major on November 1, 2025.
The question that comes up is: was TOTAL forced to announce McLaclan’s exit and replacement on October 6, 2025 when it was clear he was leaving for Chevron, or did TOTAL push him out? This is certainly an evolving story.
What’s clear is that Chevron was in sore need of someone like McLachlan, who oversaw TOTAL’s discovery of the Brulpadda and Luiperd (offshore gas condensate) fields in Block 11B/12B, in South Africa’s Outeniqua Basin between 2019 (Brulpadda) and 2020 (Luiperd), and the Venus accumulation, a major offshore light oil field in Block 2913B, in Namibia’s Orange Basin, in 2022.
Chevron has, of recent, been haemorrhaging money drilling dry holes in frontier exploration plays in Africa, even in jurisdictions where others are making discoveries. In late 2024, the American major failed in the Khendjer-1 wildcat in the Egyptian part of the Mediterranean sea, around the same time that ExxonMobil declared a gas discovery in nearby Nefatari-1.
Around the same time, Chevron’s first well in the current phase of the Namibian rush was a “duster.” The Kapana-1X, located in PEL 90 in the Orange Basin, found no commercial hydrocarbons, although the company says it provided valuable basin data. Chevron is still committed to Namibia, however, and plans to drill another exploration well in the Walvis Basin in 2026 or 2027. Mr. McLachlan will be a huge help.
“Kevin will be an important addition to the Exploration organization,” said Clay Neff, president of Chevron Upstream. “He joins us as an experienced energy executive with extensive experience, and a strong record of leading and driving exploration organizations to achieve industry-leading performance and value creation.”
Chevron’re press statement concludes: “McLachlan has extensive experience in international oil and gas exploration, development, production, and carbon capture and storage (CCS). He has held senior leadership and executive roles at companies such as TOTALEnergies SE, Murphy Oil Corporation, Nexen Inc., and ExxonMobil Corporation. He received his Bachelor of Science in Geophysics, Honors Programme, from the University of Calgary”.
