Chariot Oil & Gas CEO Steps Down. Acting CEO Named

London-listed oil company Chariot Oil & Gas has informed that Larry Bottomley, CEO, has stepped down from the company with immediate effect.

The company, with operations in Morocco, Namibia, and Brazil, said Tuesday that Adonis Pouroulis, currently Non-Executive Director and founder, would take over as acting CEO with immediate effect. 

Further, Julian Maurice-Williams, currently Chief Financial Officer, and Duncan Wallace, currently Exploration Manager, will join the Board with immediate effect as executive directors as Chief Financial Officer and Technical Director respectively.

"The Company remains committed to maximizing the value of the Anchois discovery, the low-risk gas development opportunity in the Lixus Offshore license, Morocco, and believes that the asset has the potential to deliver near term cash flows to the business. Lixus also has strong Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") credentials and remains an attractive asset for potential farm-in suitors," Chariot said.

"In line with the change in leadership, and in light of the current lack of market appetite for exploration activity, Chariot also plans to evaluate other opportunities available to it. Chariot continues to benefit from a strong financial position, with a cash balance of US$9.6 million as at 31 December 2019 with no remaining work commitments, and the Board believes that the Company has the right team in place to further progress the Lixus license, whilst also being able to maximize shareholder value through other commercial avenues," Chariot said without elaborating on what other commercial avenues actually were.

George Canjar, Chairman of Chariot Oil & Gas, said: "I would like to thank Larry for the significant contribution he has made to Chariot over the past 9 years and we wish him all the best with his future endeavors."

"We remain fully committed to further progressing our Lixus asset, as we believe the license contains considerable upside potential and is attractive to a wide range of businesses across the energy value chain.  The new team in place have considerable entrepreneurial experience and the required in house skill sets to pursue other opportunities available to us.  We will keep our stakeholders appraised on developments as appropriate and we look forward to updating the market in due course."

Larry Bottomley commented: "I have had the pleasure of working with some exceptional people, both past and present, in Chariot and its advisors, with our partners, contractors and suppliers and the various Ministries with whom the Company has built excellent relations. I leave Chariot with a tremendous asset and an extremely talented team in place to nurture that asset and deliver the success that the Company's stakeholders deserve."