Sector News

(ShareCast) – North Sea oil & gas group Trap Oil announced a management shake-up, cost cuts from job losses and the £1.86m sale of the rest of its stake in IGas Energy. Trap, which is focused on the UK Continental Shelf, said chief executive Mark Groves Gidney and chief operating officer Paul Collins quit at the end of last month as part of a cost-cutting drive. It said in August that non-executive director Marcus Stanton would take over as non-executive chairman to oversee the transition.

 

It said job cuts between now and the end of December, plus other overhead reductions would result in overhead costs falling to less than £1.5m a year from 1 January.

 

The group said it was seeking more cuts to maximise returns from assets and would update the market in due course.

 

Trap also said it had sold the rest of its ordinary shares in IGas Energy for £1.86m, equal to 82p per Igas share.

 

“Following the disposal of the IGas shares, Trapoil has, as of 31 October 2014, £18.2m of unrestricted cash,” it said in an update.

 

Shares rose 0.75p or 23.1% to 4p at 14:03 in London.