Savannah Petroleum convinces Antoine Richard back as chief operating officer

Niger and Nigeria-focussed oil and gas company Savannah Petroleum announced the appointment of Antoine Richard as its chief operating officer on Thursday, with immediate effect.

The AIM-traded firm said Richard had more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including more than 10 years of experience working in West Africa.

He had previously acted as vice-president of operations for Savannah between 2016 and 2018, and before that had worked for both major, at Total, and independent, at Perenco, oil and gas companies.

Richard had a “strong” operational background, the board said, with a focus on production optimisation, onshore facilities design and operation, the management of drilling campaigns and seismic acquisition programs.

Previous positions at Perenco included global health, safety and environmental manager, country manager roles for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Venezuela, and area manager for Egypt and North Africa.

He would be based in Lagos, and was replacing David Clarkson who - having served as chief operating officer since June 2018 - would be returning to his role on Savannah's board as a non-executive director.

“I would like to warmly welcome Antoine back to the company,” said chief executive officer Andrew Knott.

“He brings a significant amount of operational experience to the Savannah team and joins at a very exciting time for the company.

“I would also like to thank David for his significant contribution as we executed on our Niger operational campaign and conducted the integration of our Nigerian assets.”

At 1624 GMT, shares in Savannah Petroleum were down 0.48% at 20.9p.