Kay will take over from acting chief executive Neil Gibbins from July this year after an unstable period for the producer.

Beach has endured a rocky 18 months with falling resources prices impacting production and resulting in a half billion-dollar loss for the 2014-15 financial year.

Last year it announced it expected oil and gas production to fall in the 2016 financial year as the company cut exploration drilling activity.

Beach Energy chairman Glenn Davis said Kay’s extensive knowledge in the resources industry would be an asset to future key projects.

“Mr Kay has developed an impressive depth of experience and leadership style across the Australian and international oil and gas industry for more than 25 years,” Davis said.

“We are excited he is joining Beach in the position of chief executive officer and look forward to his leadership driving execution of our corporate strategy, and particularly so after the successful completion of our merger with Drillsearch in the near future.

“Matthew’s background and experience are a great fit with our strategy.”

Kay is the executive general manager, Strategy and Commercial at Oil Search Limited.

He joined Oil Search in 2014 after 12 years at Woodside and was before that at Santos.

Beach Energy was listed number 12 on InDaily‘s Business Index Top 100 companies.