CALGARY (Bloomberg) - Imperial Oil Ltd. said it appointed Bruce March as president of Canada's largest oil company effective from January 1, 2008.

Timothy Hearn will continue as chairman and chief executive officer, the Calgary-based company said today in a statement. Mr. March was also named a director.

March is currently director of refining for Europe, Africa and the Middle East at a Brussels-based affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corp., which owns about 70 percent of Imperial. The new president is in his "early 50s," Imperial spokesman Richard O'Farrell said in a telephone interview.

Imperial Oil owns oil and gas wells in western Canada and off the coast of Newfoundland, and also owns four refineries. It operates about 2,000 Esso-branded fuel stations across Canada.

This is the first time in more than five years that Imperial has a president who's also not chairman and CEO. Mr. Hearn became president effective from January 1, 2002, before adding the other titles in April of that year after Robert Peterson retired.

Hearn is "just over a year" away from reaching 65 and possible retirement, Mr. O'Farrell said.

Imperial owns 25 percent of joint venture Syncrude Canada Ltd., the largest oil-sands producer in the world, and plans multi-billion-dollar projects to develop Alberta's tar-like deposits and natural-gas reserves in Canada's arctic territory.

Mr. March has "good global experience and good operating and project management experience, and these are things as we look forward with our future growth projects that are going to be important to us," Mr. O'Farrell said.

Mr. March was named senior adviser of operations for Exxon Mobil's global refining and supply company in 2000. In 2006, he became project executive at a development to process natural gas into transportation fuels in the Middle East.