Formerly troubled oil and gas exploration and production company Regal Petroleum has made two significant changes to its board. Keith Henry has become non-executive chairman, allowing Shell veteran David Greer to focus on the role of chief executive, and Robert Stein has become finance director.

Henry, former chief executive of National Power, chairman of Burren Energy and non-executive director of South East Water, is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He will be taking the hot seat in Regal as it tries to distance itself from past ignominy over a dry well at Kallirachi in Greece. Greer notes dryly: ‘We look forward to working with him to deliver and improve both governance and increased value’.

Also refreshing the top team is Robert Wilde who took Baltic Oil Terminals to its AIM float in 2006. He brings more than 20 years’ experience in upstream oil and gas, with Phillips Petroleum and Ranger Oil, and in downstream power generation with Powergen. Says Greer: ‘Robert will be of great value to the company and the board as we continue to implement our corporate transformation and advance our field development’.

Regal raised £80 million in January and disposed of troubled assets in Greece and Liberia. This followed the breakdown of talks with Shell late last year to develop assets jointly, and the company is now exploiting its resources in Ukraine alone.