REG - UK Oil & Gas Inv PLC - New CEO Appointment <Origin Href="QuoteRef">UKOGa.L</Origin>

UK Oil & GasAnnouncement

28/01/2015 02:50

RNS Number : 2341D
UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC
27 January 2015
27 January 2015
UK Oil & Gas Plc
("UKOG" or the "Company")
New CEO Appointment
UK Oil & Gas Plc (AIM: UKOG) is pleased to announce the appointment of the highly experienced oil executive Mr Stephen Sanderson as Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The role is a non-board position.
Mr Sanderson is a petroleum geologist with over 30 years global upstream energy sector experience. He has been directly involved in making numerous commercial conventional hydrocarbon discoveries, including the giant Norwegian Smrbukk-Midgard field complex for ARCO (now BP). 
Mr Sanderson is highly experienced in creating and leading exploration-focussed businesses and in the creation and implementation of new upstream business ventures. In a variety of senior management roles he has operated exploration and new venture programmesfor ARCO, the large independent Wintershall AG and three junior start-ups. His subsurface and operated management experience encompasses Africa, North Sea/Norway, Europe, S. America and the Middle East. He has also led and managed the successful appraisal of several UKCS oil and gas fields for ARCO (now BP) in the UKCS, Netherlands and Algeria. 
Via his recent management roles in Delta Hydrocarbons, ASP and as an independent consultant, he has also had significant involvement in the evaluation and acquisition or divestment of many upstream producing, appraisal and exploration portfolios containing over 170 fields with asset values ranging from $10 million to $7 Billion.
Mr Sanderson is a graduate and associate of the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
David Lenigas, UKOG's Chairman, commented:
"Having been the author of the technical appraisal of our recent Horse Hill discovery in the Weald Basin and for our 14th Round application, Stephen will add significant technical and commercial strength to the Company's management team as we endeavour to add value to shareholders from our rapidly growing exploration and production acreage here in the UK."
Stephen Sanderson, UKOG's CEO, commented:
"Whilst early 2015 is a challenging time for the energy sector this is a particularly exciting and active period for UKOG. The company has built significant momentum in the last year through the Horse Hill-1 discovery, its acquisition of Northern Petroleum's UK producing and exploration portfolio, acquisition of interests in the producing Brockham and Lydsey fields and the 14th Round Isle of Wight onshore application. I am particularly pleased that I can expand upon my earlier work for the company on Horse Hill and the Isle of Wight to help shape and focus our efforts to realise near term value from these significant assets. 
Given the paucity of new wells drilled in the Weald Basin the Horse Hill discovery was a very significant event for Weald exploration and the company. We are currently in the process of obtaining necessary permissions to flow test the discovered conventional Upper Portland oil pool and are also investigating the possibility of adding a test within identified oil saturations encountered within the uppermost conventional Kimmeridgian Limestone reservoir. The discovery that the Kimmeridge Clay is highly organically rich, within the early to peak mature oil window and has most likely charged the oil found within the Kimmeridgian Limestone is particularly exciting and has re-written the petroleum geology of this part of the basin. This key knowledge provides sound reasons for UKOG to be bullish about the full potential of the Kimmeridge play and to seek expansion into further acreage in the basin. The key paradigm shift in Kimmeridge Clay prospectivity gained from Horse Hill also has a very positive impact on the prospectivity of the Kimmeridge and Portland sections in our P1916 Isle of Wight Licence and particularly upon the adjacent onshore 14th Round application area. 
UKOG's is also well placed to further explore the potentially significant deeper Triassic Sherwood/Bunter sandstone oil and gas potential in the Isle of Wight. Whilst the Horse Hill Triassic results were disappointing they provide encouragement that the play could be developed further to the west and southwest and this will be followed up in 2015. 
With income from ongoing oil production UKOG is well placed to extract the full potential value of its core assets and to add stepwise growth in the new and emerging plays it has discovered within both the Weald and Wessex basins."
For further information please contact: 
UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC
David Lenigas / Donald Strang  Tel: 020 7440 0640
WH Ireland (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
James Joyce / Mark Leonard  Tel: 020 7220 1666
Square 1 Consulting (Public Relations)
David Bick/Mark Longson  Tel: 020 7929 5599

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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