Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) has enhanced its organizational structure to support the material growth it is anticipating over the next several years, as well as to continue the development of its senior leadership team.

The new organizational structure has been designed to better align business units with common activities by taking advantage of natural synergies and to better balance responsibilities to facilitate growth, according to the release.

The new structure includes three major operating regions: US onshore; Eastern Mediterranean; and US Gulf of Mexico, Africa and Frontier.

Executive Leadership Changes

• Gary W. Willingham, previously vice president of strategic planning, environmental analysis and reserves, will serve as senior vice president for the US onshore region.

• J. Keith Elliott, previously vice president of operations services, will serve as senior vice president for the Eastern Mediterranean region.

• Susan M. Cunningham, previously senior vice president of exploration and business innovation, will serve as senior vice president for the US Gulf of Mexico, Africa and Frontier region. She will continue to also lead the company's business innovation initiatives.

o Willingham, Elliott and Cunningham will all directly report to David L. Stover, president and chief operating officer.

• John T. Lewis, previously vice president of the Southern region, will serve as senior vice president for corporate development and will report to Charles D. Davidson, chairman and CEO.

• Charles J. "Chip" Rimer, previously vice president, West Africa, will serve as senior vice president for global operations services and will report to Stover.

• Rodney D. Cook, previously senior vice president international, and Ted D. Brown, previously senior vice president Northern region, will serve as senior vice presidents and advisors to the president and the CEO.

Included in the US onshore region will be the company's rapidly growing unconventional horizontal developments in the Marcellus shale and DJ Basin, which should help facilitate the rapid transfer of best practices and learnings between these areas. The Eastern Mediterranean has become a very material region on its own requiring focused senior leadership as a result of Tamar recently coming on stream and several future projects being planned for offshore Israel and Cyprus. The combined US Gulf of Mexico, Africa and Frontier region allows the company to focus on its very material deepwater operations while preparing for the impacts of exploration success in the new areas it will be testing.

Other significant changes include the creation of a global operations services organization and a corporate development group. In addition, two senior advisory positions to the CEO and chief operations officer have been established to work with the new leadership teams to ensure performance remains best in class, to provide continuity of partner and government relations and to ensure execution of key strategic initiatives.

Noble Energy Inc. is an independent energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids primarily in the US, West Africa, and Eastern Mediterranean. The company is headquartered in Houston.