By Sabrina Valle

HOUSTON The former head of Exxon Mobil's shale oil and gas business will return as senior vice president over the operation following his successor's arrest earlier this month.

Bart Cahir, who was promoted a year ago to run an internal services unit called Global Business Solutions, will do a second turn as senior vice president of Upstream Unconventional, effective on Nov. 1, Exxon confirmed on Monday.

Exxon has been shopping for a new shale executive following its $59.5 billion deal for Pioneer Natural Resources and the arrest this month on a sexual assault charge of David Scott, who had replaced Cahir.

Cahir has previously runs Exxon's shale business including its XTO unit as senior vice president of Unconventional from July 2020 through April 2022.

Scott appeared before a Texas judge last week after his arrest on second-degree felony sexual assault. Scott did not comment and his attorney declined comment when approached by a Reuters reporter outside the court last week.

Exxon has said that Scott would not have work responsibilities pending the investigation. He did not enter a plea to the charge, and the case was rescheduled to Nov. 29, according to court records.

Scott has retained prominent criminal defense attorney Dan Cogdell to represent him. Cogdell was part of the five-person legal team that recently represented Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial. Paxton was acquitted.

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Editing by David Gregorio)