Yeager leads Maverick in Texas oil play

The man who drove BHP Billiton's $US20 billion push into US shale oil has emerged at the helm of another Texas oil play.

Mike Yeager, the charismatic Texan who ran BHP's petroleum division for most of the past seven years, has been appointed chief executive and chairman of ASX-listed Maverick Drilling.

Maverick is focused on three onshore oil prospects south of Houston, not far from the Eagle Ford region where BHP's shale operations are.

His departure was announced in April as part of new chief executive Andrew Mackenzie's efforts to flatten the management structure.

Mr Yeager, who served as a US Marine earlier in his life, served out time at BHP until July.

His appointment to Maverick comes as a highly ranked executive at Rio Tinto took the reins at a smaller company. Gindalbie Metals has confirmed that Dale Harris will takeover from Tim Netscher as managing director.

Mr Harris previously helped run Rio Tinto's high-technology remote operations centre at Perth airport, which controls iron ore mines and trains in the Pilbara, more than 1000 kilometres away.