Gulf Keystone lands new CEO after row with investors

GULF Keystone Petroleum, the closely watched oil firm that was once a darling of the stock market, unveiled a new CEO today following an investor revolt last year.

Jon Harris, a 30-year veteran of the sector, will replace the departing Jón Ferrier, who was under fire from investors over the disparity between his pay and the performance of the business.

Operational news has lately been disappointing and there was a missing payment from the government of Kurdistan which didn’t help sentiment.

Today the shares rallied 5%, 6.5p, to 129p on news of Harris’s appointment. It hit a low of 68p in October, but was once at a now astonishing looking 41,000p as investors bet that it would become a major oil player.

Harris joins from SASOL, a South African oiler. He was at BG for 25 years before that.  

Jaap Huijskes, the chairman who was also under pressure from investors, said there was a “global search process” to land Harris.

"Jon is an experienced executive who brings a wealth of highly relevant project delivery, asset management, production operations and technical experience within the sector to the management team and to the Board,” he added.

He thanked Ferrier. “Under his leadership, GKP was successfully restructured and transformed, as evidenced by today's strong operational performance, low-cost structure, robust financial position and pathway to further production growth and value creation.”

Harris’s pay deal has yet to be disclosed.

All oil firms have struggled with the collapse in the oil price due to the pandemic. Today Brent Crude was up 0.35 cents at $48.9. At one infamous point in April, the price of oil went very briefly less than zero.