Rosehill Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) said May 2 that President and CEO J.A. (Alan) Townsend plans to retire following more than 45 years working in the oil and gas industry.

Alan Townsend (Source: Rosehill Resources Inc.)

Townsend, who has been with the company and its predecessor Tema Oil and Gas Co. for about 16 years, will remain with Rosehill while the company searches for his replacement. He will also provide consulting services for an additional two months following his retirement to further assist the transition of his duties, the release said.

“I am proud of Rosehill’s achievements during the last year and equally proud of the many years of hard work our team put in as Tema Oil and Gas prior to the business combination that made the last year possible,” Townsend said in a statement. “We set and achieved ambitious goals in 2017, and 2018 is off to a great start. However, after 45 years in the oil and gas industry, the time is right for me to transition away from my full-time professional responsibilities.”

RELATED: Executive Q&A: Rosehill’s Time To Bloom

Rosehill, a pure-play Delaware Basin E&P with deep roots in West Texas, emerged in April 2017 with capital to make deals thanks to a “prepackaged IPO” with a public blank-check company led by industry veteran Gary Hanna, who currently serves as the board chairman.

Hanna said in a statement: “We thank Alan for his dedicated service to Rosehill. He led the company since its formation through the transformational business combination in April 2017. His leadership has been instrumental in Rosehill’s successes, which includes doubling reserves to over 31.1 million boe from year-end 2016 to year-end 2017 and tripling average daily production since inception to over 15,000 boe/d for March 2018. Having a CEO with over four decades of industry experience has been invaluable for expanding our footprint into a second core area in the Southern Delaware Basin and assembling a very capable management team.”

Since Rosehill's transformation, the company has more than doubled its position in the southern Delaware Basin with the completion of an acquisition late last year.

“We are very enthusiastic about the company’s 2018 performance to date and are grateful Alan has agreed to stay with the company while we transition leadership to his successor. We will continue to pursue our goals to grow through the drillbit and through additional acquisition opportunities in the Delaware Basin, as well as to further strengthen our balance sheet,” Hanna added.