Jonathan Tidswell-Pretorius. Photo: Angus Energy

Angus Energy announced this morning that Jonathan Tidswell-Pretorius had resigned as a director of three of the group’s companies.

Earlier this year, Mr Tidswell-Pretorius, the former Angus chairman, was found to have breached the share dealing code.

He had been under investigation for transferring his entire stake of 39 million shares in Angus for “nil consideration” to America 2030 Capital Ltd, a company with one officer, a 20 year old Hungarian living in Poland. The deal was said to be part of loan negotiations.

He resigned as chairman on 6 July 2018 but continued working for the group as Angus operations director, responsible for oil and gas operations.

But in a statement today, Angus Energy said he had resigned as a director from the subsidiaries, Angus Weald Basin No1, No2 and No3. He had been replaced by the group’s technical director, Andrew Hollis.

Mr Tidswell -Pretorius would “step back from his existing operational role to focus on business development as Angus continues to look to expand its asset portfolio”, the statement said.

New director and £2.5m payment

The company announced it had appointed Mike Wells as Director of UK Operations.

He worked for Wingas UK Storage Ltd overseeing the Saltfleetby gas field, recently acquired by Angus Energy. Mr Wells will work on the reconnection of the Saltfleetby wells to the UK gas grid, the statement said.

Angus also announced that Wingas had paid £2.5m as part of the Saltfleetby deal closed last month. The statement said:

“These funds have been transferred in order that Angus may plan, and procure equipment for, the reconnection of the field to the National Gas Transmission Grid.”

Updated to correct misspelling