Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) today appointed Lord Charles Guthrie as a non-executive director of the company.
Lord Guthrie has a distinguished background in the military, politics and business. He served in the British army from 1957 to 2001, during that time (between 1997 and 2001) he was chief of the defence staff and the principal military adviser to the government.
"As we set about the further strengthening of our Board, we are delighted to welcome Lord Guthrie to Gulf Keystone as a non-executive director,” said chief executive Todd Kozel.
“He brings a wealth of experience to the company, honed over a long and distinguished career in which he has worked at the highest levels of strategy and policy development, both in the UK and abroad.
“We greatly look forward to his positive contribution to Gulf Keystone as we continue to capture the value of our world class acreage in Kurdistan."
Last month Gulf Keystone revealed the details of its ambitious plan for the next stage of its development. It also raised US$200 million through an oversubscribed placing.
The new cash will allow the company to increase its focus on the aggressive programme of exploration and appraisal drilling on the Shaikan, Sheikh Adi and Ber Bahr blocks in Kurdistan. Some of the funds will also be used to expand the group’s production and export capabilities.
This was the latest in a series of significant announcements in the past few weeks which have seen the company outline its ambitious plans for the future.
In his interim results statement GKP founder and chief executive Todd Kozel unveiled a plan to sell a 20 per cent interest in the Akri Bijeel field, which hosts a known oil discovery and is expected to fetch ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’.
These funds, along with the US$200 million raised yesterday, will be spent on a programme to upgrade the existing Shaikan Extended Well Test (EWT) facilities, which will increase existing production capacity to 20,000 bopd (from Shaikan 1 & 2) and allow it to build a second testing and production facility (for Shaikan-2 & 4) which will also be capable of producing 20,000 bopd.
As well as supporting work on a new export pipeline capable of carrying 440,000 barrels of oil each day.