Board Changes and Senior Management Appointment

RNS Number : 7199S

Infrastrata PLC

27 June 2018

 

27 June 2018

InfraStrata plc

("InfraStrata" or the "Company")

Board Changes and Senior Management Appointment

InfraStrata plc (AIM: INFA), the UK quoted company focused on the development of natural gas storage capacity, is pleased to announce that the Company has made two key appointments to its senior management team to further support and progress the technical and commercial work being undertaken in respect of the Islandmagee gas storage project (the "Islandmagee Project").

Chief Operating Officer Appointment

John Wood has been appointed as a director of the Company and as Chief Operating Officer ("COO") with immediate effect and with primary responsibility for all operational areas of the Company's Islandmagee Project, including the Front End Engineering and Design ("FEED") programme which is currently underway.  

John has had a distinguished career within the Oil and Gas sector, holding senior posts with BAE Systems and more recently he was the global head of Oil and Gas with Aurecon, a global engineering and advisory organisation.   John has undertaken projects in Australia, USA, Africa, Europe and the UK, building up extensive experience delivering pre-FEED, FEED, FID (Final Investment Decision) and EPC  (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts involving storage and infrastructure developments.

In recent months John has been working as a consultant for InfraStrata and has been closely involved in agreeing the contracts with Costain, DEEP KBB and WSP, as well as the appointment of Evan Passaris as a specialist in salt cavern gas storage.  During his engagement, John has been managing all FEED related activities on behalf of the Company.

John is ideally suited to overseeing the operational areas of the Islandmagee Project given his wealth of technical experience across a wide variety of similar developments.  He is a well-known and highly respected industry professional and has extensive experience of working with InfraStrata's FEED partners.

Chief Financial Officer Appointment

The Board is also pleased to announce that Andy Duncan has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"), a non-board position, with immediate effect. Previously, Andy has been an independent consultant providing advice and assistance on finance and banking to corporates in the oil and gas sector, including most recently with InfraStrata where he was instrumental in securing the financing to begin the FEED. 

Prior to consulting, Andy's most recent role had been as Executive Director-Oil & Gas at Standard Chartered Bank, where he managed the bank's global relationships with a number of oil and gas majors and independents. 

Andy has over 11 years of oil and gas finance experience working for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland providing structured financings and project finance to corporates for oil and gas assets across Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Andy has significant experience of large engineering projects as, prior to entering banking, he spent 10 years in industry as a chartered mechanical engineer, where he designed topsides facilities for UK North Sea platforms as well as designing fluidised catalytic cracking units for multiple refineries across Europe. Andy has a BEng (Hons) in mechanical engineering from Nottingham University and an MBA from London Business School.

Non-Executive Director Change

InfraStrata also announces that Non-Executive Director, Karen Campbell, is to step down from the Board of InfraStrata with immediate effect.

Karen has made a tremendous commitment to the Board and its Institutional non-dilutive funding activities for the Islandmagee Project and has generated some excellent results for the Company. She has devoted far more time and energy to the Company than would normally be expected for a Non-Executive Director.

Karen has extensive commitments on her time due to a number of advisory roles that she has recently accepted and has now decided to devote her time to other global and national projects.

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Adrian Pocock Chief Executive Officer of InfraStrata Plc commented: "We are very pleased to welcome John onto the Board as a Director and COO, and Andy as CFO. John and Andy have been working with us over recent months and they have already demonstrated a real dedication to the Islandmagee Project and have produced excellent results. They will both be invaluable to the success of the Company and strengthen the Board and Executive team to a level that is appropriate for the Company's stage of development.

The Board is very grateful to Karen for her dedication to the Islandmagee Project and wishes her every success in the future."

AIM Rules disclosures

John MacInnes Wood, aged 44, has a total beneficial interest in 15,117,223 Ordinary Shares, representing 1.49 per cent. of the current issued share capital of the Company.

He is or has been a director of the following companies in the past five years:

Current directorships/partnerships	Past directorships/partnerships
Arrow Marine Management Limited J W Miller & Sons (St Monans) Limited Consulting and Advisory Group Ltd Teramar Limited	Teramar Pty Ltd Aurecon UK Ltd

Mr Wood was a director of two associated companies, M S C (Realisations) Limited (formerly MSC (Europe) Limited) and Architectural Furniture Systems Limited, until 1 October 2008. Both of these companies went into administration on 5 October 2007. A statement of affairs for M S C (Realisations) Limited as at 5 October 2007 stated a surplus as regards creditors of £59,627 and a deficiency as regards members of £940,373. A statement of affairs for Architectural Furniture Systems Limited as at 5 October 2007 stated a deficiency as regards creditors of £97,807 and a deficiency as regards members of £97,809.

Mr Wood was a director of TBL Marines Ltd until 5 June 2006. The company was subject to a Voluntary Creditors' Liquidation on 10 July 2006. A statement of affairs dated 10 July 2006 stated a deficiency as regards creditors of £356,799 and a deficiency as regards members of £356,801.

For further information, please contact:

InfraStrata plc Adrian Pocock, Chief Executive	c/o Yellow Jersey [phone]
Allenby Capital Limited (AIM Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) Jeremy Porter / Alex Brearley / Liz Kirchner	[phone]
SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Nick Emerson	[phone]
Yellow Jersey Tim Thomson	[phone]

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

InfraStrata is an independent gas storage company focused on the UK and Ireland. Further information is available on the Company's website: www.infrastrata.co.uk.

Background on the Islandmagee Storage Project

The Islandmagee gas storage project is a proposed salt cavern gas storage facility located on Islandmagee in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Board of InfraStrata believes that the proposed 500 million cubic metres Natural Gas Cavern Storage facility will provide over 25% of the UK's Natural Gas Storage once constructed, and will be situated adjacent to the Scotland Northern Ireland (gas) Pipeline (SNIP) and the Moyle 500 Megawatt Electricity Interconnector. Work commenced in 2007 with the acquisition of 3D seismic data to image the Permian salt in the Larne Lough area. During 2012, planning permission was granted for the project and a gas storage licence was issued by the Utility Regulator. In 2015 a well was drilled to core the salt and confirm the technical feasibility of the project, supported in part by the European Commission. The Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) element of the Project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018. To date approximately £11.5m has been invested in the project.

Further information is available on the company's website: www.infrastrata.co.uk

The Front End Engineering & Design (FEED) and Insitu Downhole Testing programme for the Islandmagee gas storage project is co-financed by the European Union's Connecting Europe Facility.

Disclaimer releasing the European Union from any liability in terms of the content of the dissemination materials:

"The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein."

 

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