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(Alliance News) - Nostrum Oil & Gas PLC on Monday announced the resignation of Kai-Uwe Kessel as chief executive officer with immediate effect, amid a strategic review of the company's future.
Independent Non-Executive Director Kaat Van Hecke will takeover as CEO from Monday.
Van Hecke has been a Nostrum board member since the end of 2016.
She was managing director at Austrian oil major OMV, running its Austrian upstream business. Prior to that, Van Heck held executive positions at ExxonMobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
"On behalf of the board and management of Nostrum, I would like to thank Kai for his contributions over the last 15 years. I am delighted that Kaat, during this period of strategic review, is stepping up to take the executive role at Nostrum," Chair Atul Gupta said.
Back in June, Nostrum began a strategic review, which could include a sale of the firm. Last month, it reported a decline in both profit and revenue in a tough 2019 so far.
Nostrum's revenue for the nine months to September fell 20% to USD250.3 million, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation dipping 16% to USD158.3 million.
The pre-Caspian Basin focused firm reported sales volumes of 27,515 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the quarter, down 9.9% from 30,523 barrels a year before. It already had reported this at the end of October. The fall in production was due to quicker-than-expected field declines, which led to a reduction in 2019 output guidance from Nostrum at the end of October.
"The first nine months of 2019 have been very challenging. We have seen quicker than expected decline in our core producing reservoirs resulting in a reduction in our sales guidance for 2019 by 1,000 barrels per day," said Kessel said at the time.
Shares in Nostrum were down 4.2% on Monday morning in London, last closing at 15.68 pence per share.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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