Perth Basin operator Triangle Energy is heading into 2022 with a completely refreshed board of directors led by new managing director Conrad Todd after his appointment this week to steer the company. The departures of shareholder Tamarind Energy and founding managing director Rob Towner earlier this month kicked off the renewal process.
Despite recent revenue increases from its offshore Cliff Head oilfield, courtesy of a stronger oil price, the company had been facing a number of challenges in recent times.
Getting its oil to market is one of the challenges ahead, given BP’s plans to turn the Kwinana refinery into a clean energy facility. The company has previously even flagged building a small refinery of its own to overcome this hurdle.
The new board are seasoned energy veterans with chairman Greg Hancock being the founding chair of east coast producer Cooper Energy. He also chairs Ausquest Ltd, BMG Resources Ltd and LSE Listed Cobra Resources and sits as non-executive director on two other boards.
New managing director Conrad Todd is another Cooper Energy alumni having served as exploration and development manager as it grew from a $20m market cap to $200m. He also spent time with international producers Lundin Malaysia, Lasmo and Occidental in executive technical roles.
Mr Todd was also a non-exec director at Triangle’s former renewable partner Pilot Energy, an interesting turn in context of the recent cancellation of the joint venture.
The third appointee is 35-year veteran geoscientist Mike Collins who most recently held the position of vice-president exploration and geoscience for Mitsui E&P Australia. He previously held senior positions at Woodside and AGIP/Eni. His onshore Perth Basin experience with Mitsui’s game-changing Waitsia gas discovery will no doubt be invaluable in giving direction to Triangle’s regional growth strategies.
Triangle Energy Chairman Mr Greg Hancock said:
“The newly appointed directors are extremely pleased to be appointed to the Board of Triangle and wish to acknowledge the contributions of previous directors and the Company’s staff in building and developing the business to its current stage.
The Board envisions a smooth transition and looks forward to generating further value for shareholders from the Company’s attractive portfolio of assets.”
Dr Wai-Lid Wong, CEO of Tamarind Resources, resigned earlier this month as non-executive director when the Tamarind sold its Triangle stake.
Announcing that departure, Chairman at the time Timothy Monckton noted Towner’s resignation, thanking him for his nine years’ service at the company. Monckton then departed the following week along with remaining non-executive directors Malcolm King and Deanna Carpenter.
The market seems to have responded positively to the board changes. Major shareholder Altor Alpha Fund topped up its equity during the Tamarind exit from 6% to 7.7% mid last month, in a move indicating support for the incoming management group. Traders pushed the stock up to 2.1c on Monday on news of the appointments but has eased off to 1.6c giving it a market cap of around $17m.
Interestingly Triangle holds around $16m of stock in Queensland explorer State Gas and had over $12m in cash and oil inventory.
It’s a new broom that sweeps clean as the saying goes and shareholders will be hoping the calibre and experience of the new board will help Triangle get over the hurdles it has encountered in recent years.
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