New Chairman For AIP

Caltex Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Tony Blevins will succeed Shell Australia Chairman Peter Duncan as Chairman of the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) effective today.

Mr Blevins has been Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Caltex since 31 March 2000 and a Director of AIP since 1 April 2000.

Prior to his current position, Mr Blevins was Chief Executive Officer of Texaco Brazil (1995 - 2000) with responsibility for Texaco Inc's downstream business in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Since joining Texaco in 1966, Mr Blevins held a variety of accounting positions before being appointed Finance Director for Texaco Ltd in the United Kingdom (1991 - 1994).

As Caltex CEO, Mr Blevins heads the only petroleum refining and marketing company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is responsible to more than 30,000 Australian shareholders.

Mr Blevins broad international business experience including his leadership of a large marketing company in Brazil in a challenging economic environment and his knowledge of the downstream business in general will be valuable strengths for AIP as the industry faces an increasingly difficult economic and regulatory environment.

Mr Blevins praised the leadership of Peter Duncan whose time as chairman saw the AIP restructure and move its operations to Canberra to better serve the needs of the industry.

"Australia benefits from the cheapest pre-tax petrol in the OECD world and the industry through the AIP needs to ensure any moves by Governments to impose regulation on the industry do not have deleterious affects on consumers," Mr Blevins said.