Last checked at 11 Oct 2012 07:00
11 October 2012
Sound Oil Plc
("Sound Oil" or "the Company")
Board changes
Sound Oil (AIM:SOU), the upstream oil and gas company with assets in Italy and Indonesia, is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Hockey as Non-Executive Chairman and James Parsons as Chief Executive Officer of the Company with immediate effect.
Gerry Orbell, who has been Chairman and Chief Executive since founding Sound Oil seven years ago, has chosen to retire from the Company and is leaving the Board with immediate effect. The Directors wish to express their gratitude to Gerry for his tremendous efforts and dedicated service in establishing and developing the Company including Consul Oil & Gas which now forms the basis of Sound Oil's Italian business. The Directors express their sincere best wishes to Gerry for the future.
Andrew Hockey, aged 53, has been a non-executive director of Sound Oil since May 2011 and has 30 years' technical and managerial experience in the upstream oil and gas industry. Andrew is a co-founder of Fairfield Energy Limited where he is General Manager, Joint Ventures and New Business. Andrew's previous roles include senior positions in Eni, Lasmo, Monument and Petrofina with responsibilities across Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Greece and the UK North Sea. Andrew has a BA Honours in Geology from Oxford University and an MSc in Petroleum Geology from Imperial College, London.
James Parsons, aged 40, has been Chief Financial Officer at the Company for the past twelve months and has 19 years' experience in the fields of strategy, management, finance and corporate development in the energy industry. James joined Sound Oil from the European division of Inter Pipeline Fund, a Toronto-listed resources business, where he held the position of Finance and Corporate Development Director of Inter Pipeline Europe. He started his career with the Royal Dutch Shell group in 1994 and has worked in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Scandinavia, Holland and London. Leading up to 2006 (when he left Shell to join Inter Pipeline), James held various positions in Shell's exploration and production business, latterly as Vice President of New Business. James has a BA Honours in Business Economics from Durham University and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. In his new role as CEO, James will join the Board and he will also remain acting Chief Financial Officer of the Company pending the appointment of a replacement.
Andrew Hockey, Sound Oil's new Chairman, commented:
"I would like to personally thank Gerry, who I have known and worked with for many years, for his efforts on behalf of Sound Oil. I believe his foresight in bringing in our new management in good time has allowed this succession to proceed smoothly on his retirement from the Company.
Sound Oil is now poised on the brink of first revenues and exciting development prospects. I am very much looking forward to working with James Parsons in this next exciting phase of the evolution of Sound Oil, particularly the drilling of the Nervesa and Strombone discoveries in Italy. We have high expectations for the coming months."
For further information please contact:
Sound Oil Andrew Hockey, Chairman James Parsons, Chief Executive Officer
| Tel: +44 (0)1372 365745 |
Smith & Williamson - Nominated Adviser Azhic Basirov David Jones
| Tel: +44 (0)20 7131 4000 |
Westhouse Securities- Broker Antonio Bossi Jonathan Haines
| Tel: +44 (0)20 7601 6100 |
Buchanan Tim Thompson Helen Chan Tom Hufton
| Tel: +44 (0)20 7466 5000 |
Additional information
James Parsons, who holds 661,765 ordinary shares in the Company (representing 0.02% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital) and options over 3,300,000 ordinary shares exercisable at a price of 2.175p per share between 5 September 2012 and 4 September 2016 and over 4,500,000 ordinary shares exercisable at a price of 2.50p per share between 1 March 2013 and 28 February 2018, has no current directorships (other than of Sound Oil) and has been a director of the following companies over the last five years: Inter Pipeline Europe Ltd; Chemicals & Oil Storage Management Ltd; Cumbrian Storage Ltd; Immingham Storage Company Ltd; Seal Sands Storage Ltd; Simon Grangemouth Ltd; Simon Riverside Ltd; Simon Storage Ltd; Velva Liquids (North Shields) Ltd; Inter Pipeline Denmark Partnership I/S; Inter Pipeline Denmark A/S; Simon Storage Deutschland GmbH; Simon Tanklager-Gesellschaft mbH; TLG Diesel GmbH.