Oil and gas exploration firm PetroNeft has appointed a new chief executive. with David Sturt taking up the role in March.
Mr Sturt has been a director of the company since 2016. He will take over from interim chief executive Karl Johnson on March 25th.
Mr Sturt has more than 35 years of international experience in the oil and gas industry. He has served as senior vice president with Azimuth Limited since 2012, and is also a non-executive director of Swedish firm Petrosibir. Between 2011 and 2012, Mr Sturt was deputy board chairman and head of upstream for Ukraine-based oil firm Ukrnafta. Prioer to that, he was a founding shareholder of oil and gas production firm VistaTex Energy, and was founding chief executive of Kausar Oil and Gas. He also held positions with Petrokazkhstan, Hess, Sun Oil, ConocoPhillips and Dragon Oil.
Mr Sturt is set to continue the company's work in testing the market in Russia, gauging appetite for a potential sale of Licences 61 and/or 67 to return value to shareholders. PetroNeft has a 50 per cent stake in the licences.
If the sale took place, he would be entitled to share options up to a total potential amount of $100,000 with the strike price and number of options calculated based on the company’s share option scheme.
His appointment was welcomed by chairman G David Golder. "I am delighted that David has agreed to take up the position of CEO and am confident that he can bring a successful conclusion to our efforts to realise increased value to shareholders," he said.
