Ex-BP Boss Hayward Lures Monaghan To Genel

The oil company led by Tony Hayward, the former boss of BP, is poised to announce a shake-up of its executive team four years after it was founded.

Sky News has learned that Genel Energy (Other OTC: GEGYF - news) , which is listed on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) , will issue a statement on Monday in which it will say that Julian Metherell is to step down as its chief financial officer.

Mr Metherell, a former partner at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) , is expected to retire at Genel's annual meeting in the spring, having played a key role in the company's development.

He will be replaced by Ben Monaghan, one of the City's top oil and gas sector bankers.

Mr Monaghan is understood to have resigned from his role leading JP Morgan's European energy business on Friday, and a source close to the bank said that he had done so in order to join Genel.

The timing of Mr Metherell's departure is understood to have been planned for months, and is likely to presage further change in the next year or so, with Mr Hayward expected to move into the chairman's role.

The management change comes as the world's oil producers grapple with the implications of the fall in crude prices over the last six months.

Genel, whose operations are focused on Kurdistan, reduced its revenue forecasts earlier this month in the wake of the declining oil price.

The company said revenue in 2015 would be up to $200m lower at between $350m and $400m, reflecting its expectation that Brent crude prices will remain subdued at around $50-a-barrel rather than the $80 on which earlier projections had been based.

Mr Hayward, who raised hundreds of millions of pounds to acquire Genel after leaving BP in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, said the company remained in solid financial health.

"Our robust balance sheet, coupled with rising onshore oil production amongst the lowest cost in the world, and the significant financial flexibility in the portfolio, leaves us well-positioned to continue to grow even in a period of sustained low oil prices," he said on January 21.

As part of that statement, Genel also said it expected to record a write-off of $480m in its accounts for last year in relation to offshore drilling near Angola, Malta and Morocco.

The company saw the removal of an important obstacle in December when it began receiving delayed payments owed to international oil exporters by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Other London-listed oil explorers in Kurdistan have also received millions of pounds in such payments, although they have otherwise fared less well than Genel.

Sky News revealed earlier this month that Afren (LSE: AFR.L - news) was in talks with its lenders about a financial restructuring, while Gulf Keystone Petroleum has been hit by a string of rows with shareholders about pay and corporate governance.

A Genel spokesman declined to comment on Sunday.