Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc /
Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas
21 November 2019
Europa Oil &
Gas (Holdings) plc (‘Europa’ or ‘the Company’)
Board Changes
The Board of Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc (the “Board”)
announces that, by mutual agreement, Mr Hugh Mackay, the Chief Executive Officer and an
Executive Director since 2011, has stepped down from the Board with
immediate effect. Hugh will remain an employee of the Company at
this time and will be leaving the Company on 31 December 2019 after a handover period. Mr
Simon Oddie moves from the role of
Non-Executive Chairman of the Company to Interim Chief Executive
Officer and Executive Chairman, until a new Chief Executive Officer
is appointed.
Hugh’s achievements while Chief Executive Officer include
spearheading Europa’s very high impact exploration activities both
offshore Ireland and more recently
Morocco. He has also overseen
Europa’s onshore UK exploration, development and production
position.
The decision to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer reflects
the Company’s strategy to diversify its asset base by adding new
ventures in the appraisal/development part of the business. With
regard to its existing portfolio, the Board confirms that its farm
out activities continue as set out in the announcement of
29 October 2019, from which there is
no further update.
Commenting, Simon Oddie,
Chairman of Europa, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like
to thank Hugh for his service to the Company. Hugh was appointed
CEO in 2011 and inherited a varied portfolio of exploration
licences in Ireland, France, Western
Sahara and Romania as well
as onshore UK production. He worked up and focused the Company on a
series of drillable exploration prospects capable of being farmed
out. As a result, Europa has very high impact exploration positions
offshore Atlantic margin in Ireland and Morocco as well as oil development and
production onshore UK. Hugh has also been successful in attracting
institutional investors to the Company’s share register. This
provides Hugh’s successor with a solid base for the future
development of the Company. We wish Hugh the best for the
future.”
Hugh Mackay said: “I have
enjoyed my eight years at Europa and am proud of the position we
have built as a leading Atlantic margin explorer in Ireland and our new entry into Morocco. I am confident that the scene is now
set for positive outcomes at Inishkea and Wressle and that the time
is right for new leadership to take the Company forward. I wish the
staff, Board and shareholders of Europa all the very best for the
future.”
Background on Simon Oddie
Simon, an engineer, has more than 40 years of relevant
experience as a petroleum engineer, technical consultant, manager
and investment adviser in upstream oil and gas. He has worked with
Schlumberger, ERC Energy Resource Consultants, Enterprise Oil and
Gemini Oil and Gas Advisors LLP.
He was CEO of Enterprise Italy during its first operated
exploration drilling both on and offshore. Simon more recently was
the architect of the Gemini Oil and Gas royalty funds where he
established a solid track record in fundraising, investor
relations, and origination, evaluation and execution of oil and gas
deals.
Background on Hugh Mackay
Hugh, a geologist, has more than 30 years experience in the oil
and gas sector, including eight years at BP in a variety of
technical roles in the UK, Oman
and Egypt, then ten years at
Enterprise Oil in leadership roles, culminating as head of the
SE Asia division. Hugh was part of
the leadership team that sold the Peak Group to AGR and co-founded
Avannaa Resources, a leading mineral exploration company in
Greenland and which was later sold
to Cairn Energy. For the last eight years he has been CEO of Europa
Oil & Gas and led its transition to a high impact Atlantic
margin explorer.
The information communicated in this
announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.
* * ENDS * *
For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or
contact:
Simon Oddie |
Europa |
+ 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 |
Phil Greenhalgh |
Europa |
+ 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 |
Christopher Raggett |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Simon Hicks |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Camille Gochez |
finnCap Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Frank Buhagiar |
St Brides Partners Ltd |
+ 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 |
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Notes
Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio
of multi-stage hydrocarbon assets that includes production,
exploration and development interests, in countries that are
politically stable, have transparent licensing processes, and offer
attractive terms. In 2019 Europa produced 91 boepd. Its highly
prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in
the UK (targeting production start-up in 2020 at 500 bopd gross)
and six licences offshore Ireland
with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective
resources of 6.4 billion barrels oil equivalent and 1.5 tcf gas
across all six licences. The Company’s flagship project offshore
Ireland is the Inishkea prospect –
a near field gas exploration project with 1.5 trillion cubic feet
(‘TCF’) gross mean un-risked prospective gas resources.