BG Group’s Fabio Barbosa steps back

Fabio Barbosa is to step down from his role as chief financial officer of FTSE 100-listed oil and gas producer BG Group.

He has been on leave of absence from the business since September.

However, Barbosa — who returned to his native Brazil for treatment of an undisclosed medical condition — won’t be leaving the company.

Instead he has been appointed chairman of BG South America, in which capacity he will “provide senior counsel and advice to the company’s teams in Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil”, a statement from the firm said.

Barbosa’s former position as chief financial officer will continue to be filled by his temporary replacement — group financial controller Den Jones — until a permanent replacement is found. His move comes at a time of considerable upheaval at BG, after the recent appointment of Chris Finlayson as chief executive amid some tough challenges for the group.

Once the darling of oil and gas investors, BG is struggling to bring developments in Australia and Brazil on stream. This month, it abandoned its ambitions to produce one million barrels per day by 2015 in the wake of project delays.

BG’s shares were little changed today, ticking up by just 4.5p to 1142p. They are down about a fifth since October, when BG gave its first of several warnings on production levels.