Baron Oil chairman to resign after five years

The chairman and director of Baron Oil will resign from the company with effect from February 28, 2018.

Baron Oil said on Friday that, following the resignation of William Colvin from the chairman and director roles, Malcolm Butler would assume the duties of chairman in addition to his role as chief executive.

The company added that finance director Geoff Barnes agreed to defer his impending retirement and remain in this position until the board was fully constituted and a suitably qualified finance professional was able to assume the role of finance director.

Baron said it was in advanced discussions with an experienced individual having an oil and gas and corporate finance background, who would join the company as a non-executive director.

Also, Baron will make a presentation on its operations at the Proactive Investors Oil Capital Conference in London on March 14, 2018.

Butler said: “It is with great regret that the board has accepted the resignation of Bill Colvin as chairman and director of the company, which he has served for over five years. Bill shepherded the company through very difficult times following the sudden and unexpected death of our former chief executive. In addition, he had to deal with a partner that continually refused to honor its full farm-in obligations on Block Z-34, offshore Peru.”

Colvin added: “Malcolm and I worked hard over the last two years carrying out the studies necessary to understand the true potential of our deep-water Z-34 Block, in spite of our partner’s refusal to cooperate. Following our decision to relinquish without drilling, we achieved the unusual success of securing the release of the full $3.6 million held as guarantee of our drilling obligations by the Peruvian authorities.

“Now that the company has funds in place to enable it to change from concentrating on a single, very expensive, long lead time, remote play to a new strategy of looking for near-term drilling opportunities closer to home, with attractive economics, I feel the time is right for me to move on.”

It is worth reminding that Baron Oil entered into an option agreement with Corfe Energy earlier this week. Under the agreement, Baron will be assigned part of its rights to farm into UK North Sea license P2235, containing the Wick Prospect.

The Wick Prospect lies close to the shore of northeast Scotland, five kilometers north and updip from the Lybster Field, which has been developed from onshore facilities.