11th Jan 2017 16:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Oil and gas producer Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd on Wednesday revealed it has handed Stuart Catterall the role of chief operating officer, tasked with reviving the company's operations after recently returning from near-collapse.
Catterall has around 30 years' experience in the oil and gas industry and most recently worked as an adviser to oil and gas explorers including EnQuest PLC and Petroceltic PLC. Previously, he has held a breadth of senior leadership and technical roles with companies including BHP Billiton PLC.
The new director has been awarded options over 250,000 shares in the company that can be exercised at no cost. The stock was quoted at 136.73 pence late Wednesday, up 1.6%, making the option shares worth GBP341,825.
Gulf Keystone said Catterall already has "proven expertise" in successfully developing oil fields and leading operations in remote, onshore international locations, including in the Middle East and North Africa regions, making him suitable to take on the company's flagship Shaikan field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Catterall will be responsible for procurement, budgeting and health & safety, in addition to implementing Gulf Keystone's current work plan.
"We are very pleased to welcome Stuart to Gulf Keystone. He brings a wealth of operational experience from three decades in the industry, including in senior leadership positions within a number of highly regarded international companies," said Gulf Keystone Chief Executive Jon Ferrier.
The London-listed firm only just managed to avoid total collapse last year after completing the "long and complex process" to restructure its balance sheet to reduce debt down to just USD100 million from the previous USD600 million, in turn handing over the majority of equity in the business to its loan note and bond holders and diluting the stakes of its ordinary shareholders.
Catterall's sole priority will be addressing the natural field declines at the Shaikan field in Iraq, which sits at the core of Gulf Keystone, especially after all the company's other interests were offloaded as part of the major restructuring.
The improvement in liquidity should allow Gulf Keystone to launch its near-term investment plan with the objective of maintaining current production rates of around 40,000 barrels per day and then grow that to 55,000 barrels per day once authorities have given their approval.
The company has not yet published its full-year results for 2016, but its latest target was to deliver average daily production of 31,000 to 35,000 barrels.
In the first half of 2016, production was only at 33,000 barrels per day because of it had to scale back due to a lack of export capacity, an issue that has now been resolved. Without that restriction, production would have been in a range of only 36,000 to 40,000 barrels a day.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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