PEDEVCO Announces Appointment of New Chief Executive Officer, New Chief Commercial Officer, and Board of Director Changes

HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / December 11, 2024 / PEDEVCO Corp. (NYSE:PED) ("PEDEVCO" or the "Company"), an energy company engaged in the acquisition and development of strategic, high growth energy projects in the U.S., announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed J. Douglas Schick, the Company's current President since August 2018, as the Company's new Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board, and is expanding its executive management and development team with the hiring of Mr. Jody Crook as the Company's new Chief Commercial Officer, all effective January 1, 2025. Mr. Schick succeeds Dr. Simon G. Kukes, who will step down as Chief Executive Officer and assume the role of Executive Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors.

Dr. Kukes, the Company's current Chief Executive Officer and newly appointed Executive Chairman, commented, "Since taking over the Company in 2018, our team has worked closely to increase production, contain costs, raise capital, secure a $250 million reserve based credit facility with Citibank, and enter into key joint development agreements in the Permian and D-J Basins, all of which Mr. Schick has been instrumental in achieving. With the Company's clean balance sheet, cash on hand, zero debt, and $250 million reserve based lending facility available to fund future organic development and accretive acquisition opportunities, and now with an expanded operations and development team, we believe the Company is well-positioned for continued growth under Mr. Schick's leadership."

About J. Douglas Schick

Mr. Schick has over twenty-five years of experience in the energy industry. Prior to joining the Company as President on August 1, 2018, Mr. Schick was employed by American Resources, Inc., a privately held oil and gas investment, development and operating company which he co-founded and serves as Chief Executive Officer (from August 2017 to the present) and formerly as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Development (from August 2013 to August 2017). Prior to starting American Resources, Mr. Schick served as the founder, owner and principal of J. Douglas Enterprises, an energy industry focused business development and financial consulting firm (from June 2011 to August 2013) as Vice President of Finance (from January 2011 until its sale in June 2011) for Highland Oil and Gas, as Manager of Planning and then Director of Planning at Mariner Energy, Inc. (from December 2006 until its merger with Apache Corp. in December 2010), and in various roles of increasing responsibility in finance, planning, M&A, treasury and accounting at The Houston Exploration Company, ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil Company (from 1998 to 2006).Mr. Schick holds a BBA in Finance from New Mexico State University and an MBA with a specialization in Finance from Tulane University.

About Jody Crook

Mr. Crook has over twenty-five years of experience in the energy industry. Mr. Crook has served as a Senior Advisor for Land and Business Development activities for the Company since April 2020. Prior to joining the Company, in 2015 Mr. Crook co-founded Tenet Advisory Group LLC, a Houston-based consulting firm that provides engineering, land, regulatory, and business development services to the oil and gas sector, and from 2017 to 2018 Mr. Crook co-founded and served as principal of Bronze Four Resources, LLC, an Austin-based contract operating company focused on contract drilling, completion, and production operations in the Anadarko basins. From 2004 to 2014 Mr. Crook held various leadership roles at Jones Energy, Ltd., a public oil and gas company based in Austin, Texas, including as Land Manager, Senior Vice President of Land, Senior Vice President for the Arkoma Region, and Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Exploration. Mr. Crook holds a BBA in Finance & PLM from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

About PEDEVCO Corp.

PEDEVCO is a publicly-traded energy company engaged in the acquisition and development of strategic, high growth energy projects in the United States. The Company's principal assets are its San Andres Asset located in the Northwest Shelf of the Permian Basin in eastern New Mexico, and its D-J Basin Asset located in the D-J Basin in Weld and Morgan Counties, Colorado and Southeastern Wyoming. PEDEVCO is headquartered in Houston, Texas. More information about PEDEVCO can be found at www.pedevco.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of PEDEVCO's future expectations, plans and prospects, within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act and such laws, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act and applicable laws. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the results of PEDEVCO and its subsidiaries to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. The forward-looking statements include projections and estimates of the Company's corporate strategies, future operations, development plans and programs, including the costs thereof, drilling locations, estimated oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids production, price realizations, projected operating, general and administrative and other costs, projected capital expenditures, efficiency and cost reduction initiative outcomes, statements regarding future production, costs and cash flows, liquidity and our capital structure. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will conform with our expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the volatility of oil and natural gas prices, our success in discovering, estimating, developing and replacing oil and natural gas reserves, risks of our operations not being profitable or generating sufficient cash flow to meet our obligations; risks relating to the future price of oil, natural gas and NGLs; risks related to the status and availability of oil and natural gas gathering, transportation, and storage facilities; risks related to changes in the legal and regulatory environment governing the oil and gas industry, and new or amended environmental legislation and regulatory initiatives; risks relating to crude oil production quotas or other actions that might be imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producing countries; technological advancements; changing economic, regulatory and political environments in the markets in which the Company operates; general domestic and international economic, market and political conditions, including the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the global response to such conflict; actions of competitors or regulators; the potential disruption or interruption of the Company's operations due to war, accidents, political events, severe weather, cyber threats, terrorist acts, or other natural or human causes beyond the Company's control; risks related to the need for additional capital to complete future acquisitions, conduct our operations, and fund our business on favorable terms, if at all, the availability of such funding and the costs thereof; risks related to the limited control over activities on properties we do not operate and the speculative nature of oil and gas operations in general; risks associated with the uncertainty of drilling, completion and enhanced recovery operations; risks associated with illiquidity and volatility of our common stock, dependence upon present management, the fact that Dr. Simon G. Kukes, our current CEO and member of the Board, beneficially owns a majority of our common stock, and our ability to maintain the listing of our common stock on the NYSE American; pandemics, governmental responses thereto, economic downturns and possible recessions caused thereby; inflationary risks and recent increased interest rates, and the risks of recessions and economic downturns caused thereby or by efforts to reduce inflation; risks related to military conflicts in oil producing countries; changes in economic conditions; limitations in the availability of, and costs of, supplies, materials, contractors and services that may delay the drilling or completion of wells or make such wells more expensive; the amount and timing of future development costs; the availability and demand for alternative energy sources; regulatory changes, including those related to carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions; and others that are included from time to time in filings made by PEDEVCO with the Securities and Exchange Commission, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to, in the "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" sections of its Form 10-Ks and Form 10-Qs and in its Form 8-Ks, which it has filed, and files from time to time, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. These reports are available at www.sec.gov. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or any person acting on behalf of the Company are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on PEDEVCO's future results and/or could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. PEDEVCO cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable laws. If we update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

PEDEVCO Corp.
(713) 221-1768
[email protected]

SOURCE: PEDEVCO Corp.

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