Chariot CEO Steps Down, new Board Named

After nine years with Chariot Oil & Gas, its CEO Larry Bottomley has been replaced with the company's founder Adonis Pouroulis with immediate effect, the Atlantic margins-focused explorer said July 21. It did not give any reason.

Pouroulis, previously a non-executive director, will be joined at the board level by Julian Maurice-Williams as CFO and upstream head Duncan Wallace as technical director. He himself is only the acting CEO.

Chariot said it was "committed to maximising the value of the Anchois discovery, the low-risk gas development opportunity in the Lixus Offshore licence, 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 credentials and remains an attractive asset for potential farm-in suitors."

In a mid-June interview, Bottomley told NGW that the company hoped to progress towards front-end engineering design contract in September and had held talks with potential buyers of the gas.

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 had a cash balance of $9.6mn as at December 31 and the board believes it has "the right team in place to further progress the Lixus licence, whilst also being able to maximise shareholder value through other commercial avenues."

Chairman George Canjar said: "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."

Bottomley said he had the pleasure of working with some exceptional people, including partners, contractors, suppliers and the various ministries with which Chariot had "built excellent relations."