Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Regal Falls to Record on Greer Exit, Ukraine Gas Flow Failure

Bloomberg

By Eduard Gismatullin – Sep 30, 2010

Regal Petroleum Plc, the U.K. explorer focusing on natural-gas projects in Ukraine, fell to the lowest share price on record after Chief Executive Officer David Greer quit and as gas wells failed to stabilize output.

Regal dropped as much as 31 percent to 18.25 pence in London trading, the lowest price since Sept. 27, 2002. The stock was at 21 pence at 10:03 a.m. local time, valuing the company at 66.86 million pounds ($106 million). The shares have fallen about 80 percent in the last year.

Keith Henry, Regal’s chairman, will assume Greer’s responsibilities until further notice, the London-based company said today in a statement.

Some Ukrainian wells have failed to stabilize gas production, Regal said in a separate statement. Its perforation works and tests of the T- and D-sands in the Mex-106 well didn’t “show any evidence of inflow,” it said.

In April, Regal decided to shift its focus away from deep- level exploration of Tournasian- and Devonian-age layers, or T and D-sands, toward production from Visean aged, or B-sand, shallower deposits. It has been working to boost production from its Mekhediviska-Golotvshinska and Svyrydivske fields in Ukraine after missing an output target of 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day last year.

Output rose to an average 2,377 barrels of oil a day in June, up from 1,452 barrels a day in December, Regal said.

Greer, a former Royal Dutch Shell Plc executive, joined Regal on Nov. 22, 2007, a day after the Anglo-Dutch company bid $410 million for Regal’s two Ukrainian gas fields. On Nov. 23, Shell called off its approach.

Greer worked on Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas exploration project in Russia. He quit as project director in June 2007 after sending a motivational memo to staff in April urging them to advance pipeline construction and saying he despised cowards, according to Shell. The company denied the two events were linked.

OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural gas monopoly, took control of Sakhalin-2 on April 18, 2007, to accelerate its development after criticism by the Russian government over environmental damage and construction delays.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [email protected]

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLES

ShellNews.net: Regarding “Are these astonishing allegations about the Sakhalin-2 project true or false?”: 20 May 2007

ShellNews.net: more Sakhalin-2 insider allegations and an astonishing leaked email purportedly from David Greer: 2 June 2007

Royal Dutch Shell has this morning confirmed the authenticity of a leaked email from David Greer, Deputy CEO of Sakhalin Energy: 5 June 2007

ShellNews.net: Former Shell Executive Paddy Briggs comments on the David Greer memo scandal: 6 June 2007

Financial Times: Revised article on speech by General Patton-Greer: ‘Pipeliners All!’ Shell’s memo to Sakhalin: 6 June 2007

Financial Times: Front Page Story: ‘Pipeliners All!’ memo urges Shell’s workers to bounce off the bottom: 6 June 2007

ShellNews.net: Index of articles covering David Greer plagiarism scandal: 9 June 2007

Financial Times: David Greer Memo: 12 June 2007

ShellNews.net: David Greer, Deputy CEO of Sakhalin Energy resigns in disgrace: 21 June 2007

Another blunder by former Shell MD David Greer sinks Shell deal 23 Nov 2007

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.