PA Resources cutting staff, closing office in London

Swedish oil company PA Resources is trimming its staff in order to reduce cost following the board’s decision announced on November 17, 2015 to sell all of PA Resources’ assets.

The company on Monday said its cost reduction efforts would entail several organisational and management changes.

The company’s London office, which is tasked with the management of the North Sea assets and group exploration activities, will close at the end of 2015, and all the staff relating to these activities will leave the company. The corporate headquarters in Stockholm will remain but with reduced manpower to manage the completion of the sales process and handle the administration, PA Resources said.

Kevin McGrory, General Counsel, and Graham Goffey, SVP for Exploration and MD for the North Sea and West Africa, whose employment ends at the end of 2015 have been retained, together with a number of other key staff, as consultants to support the sales process.

At PA Resources’ Stockholm office, Slimane Bouabbane, VP Business Development, will leave his position during the first quarter of 2016, and Urban Adolfson, acting CFO, will leave the company on the 11 March 2016 to take up a position at another company. Mark McAllister, CEO, and Paul Elstone, MD of PA Resources in Tunisia, will remain in their positions.

To remind, in April 2015, PA Resources AB’s board of directors initiated a review of the company’s strategic options with regards to the company’s future. The main options explored were: the availability of long-term financing for the group, a corporate transaction/M&A or a sale of assets or subsidiaries.

The review process reached its conclusion, with the board of directors discovering no viable alternatives with regards to long-term financing or M&A, leaving the third alternative, a sale of its assets and subsidiaries, as the company’s remaining option.