Ithaca appoints new chief commercial officer

Ithaca Energy announced the appointment of a new Chief Commercial Officer on Tuesday, in long-serving staff member Richard Smith.

The AIM-listed North Sea oil and gas operator confirmed Dr Smith's appointment was effective from January 1.

"Dr Smith has held the position of corporate development manager at Ithaca for the last five years", the company's board said in a statement.

"He has over 19 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and wider energy sector, in various senior business development, corporate strategy and commercial positions", it added.

Prior to joining Ithaca, Dr Smith spent eight years with Total S.A., working in that company's UK North Sea business and at its France head office.

At the same time, Ithaca Energy's board said it had approved the grant of 12m share options to employees, officers and certain directors of the company in accordance with its stock options plan, as well as 400,000 shadow options to the two most recently appointed non-call executive directors.

The options have been granted effective January 5, and may be exercised for a period of four years from that date. They had an exercise price of CAD $0.55, which was Ithaca's closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on January 4.