African Petroleum in non-exec chairman change

Independent oil company African Petroleum has announced that Charles Matthews, Non-Executive Chairman, is retiring as Chairman and Non-Executive Director effective from Monday, May 23, in order to pursue other business interests.

Dr. David King, currently serving as a Non-Executive Director of the company since July 2013, will assume the position of Non-Executive Chairman, effective from the retirement of Matthews.

According to the company, Dr King is a geoscientist with over 35 years of experience in oil and gas and other natural resources industries. He holds an MSc in Geophysics from Imperial College, London, and a PhD in Seismology from the Australian National University, Canberra.

After an early career in research/academia, including 2 years as Research Fellow at the Norwegian Seismic Array facility at Kjeller, he has worked in oil and gas exploration in a wide range of countries, the company stated. Dr King has co-founded, as well as held executive and non-executive board positions with, a number of ASX listed oil and gas exploration companies, including Eastern Star Gas Limited, Gas2Grid Limited and Sapex Limited.

He has also served as a CEO of oil & gas producers Beach Petroleum and Claremont Petroleum, and Chairman of Robust Resources Ltd. Dr King is currently Non-Executive Chairman of two ASX listed companies: oil and gas exploration company Galilee Energy Limited, and biotechnology research and development company, Cellmid Limited.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Jens Pace, CEO of African Petroleum said: “On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Charles Matthews for his significant contribution to the Company since joining the Board in October 2013 and wish him every success with his other business interests. We are very pleased that David King has agreed to assume the position of Chairman and we look forward to working with him and utilising his extensive industry leadership experience.”

Commenting on today’s announcement, Dr David King, Non-Executive Chairman of African Petroleum said: “African Petroleum is at an exciting juncture as we look to replicate the successful farm-out transaction we recently finalised with Ophir Energy across the rest of our diverse portfolio, and move our focus back to operational activity.”

Following the changes announced on Monday, African Petroluem’s Board is comprised of six Directors: Dr David King, Non-Executive Chairman; Jens Pace, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director; Stephen West, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director; Bjarne Moe, Non-Executive Director; Timothy Turner, Non-Executive Director; Anthony Wilson, Non-Executive Director.