STEVE Remp has bowed out of SeaEnergy with a £500,000 pay-off, 34 years after he founded its predecessor Ramco Energy, to return to his pioneering roots.
Aberdeen-based SeaEnergy said Mr Remp stood down as executive chairman yesterday following a rollercoaster career to concentrate on personal investment activities.
Mr Remp, who took Ramco behind the Iron Curtain in the 1990s, hopes to breathe fresh life into a beleaguered campaign that the company started off the coast of Montenegro.
Exploration work in Montenegro had stalled as a result of disputes with the Montenegrin Government.
SeaEnergy said Mr Remp will acquire certain non- core oil and gas interests in Montenegro for no cost, while SeaEnergy will retain the right to participate in any upside up to a maximum of $20 million (£12.7m)
A spokesman said: "This allows the group to retain a significant potential upside while avoiding the management time and ongoing costs involved with trying to resolve the disputes and advance the opportunities," said Aim-listed SeaEnergy.
Aged 64, Mr Remp may relish the prospect of returning to exploration in eastern Europe.
In 2000 Ramco sold its stake in the ACG find in Azerbaijan for $150m. But it was left with hefty debts after an attempt to restart production at Seven Heads gas field off Ireland went badly wrong in 2003.
The next year, Mr Remp underwent successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.
Mr Remp then reinvented Ramco as a renewable energy specialist, SeaEnergy.
The company sold off a subsidiary that developed projects for wind farms off Scotland to Repsol for £39m last year.
Mr Remp said: "I am proud to have founded, built and led SeaEnergy and Ramco over more than three decades and to have achieved some exceptional successes."
SeaEnergy's directors will focus on developing businesses that will provide services such as maintaining offshore wind farms.
David Sigsworth, the senior non-executive director, has become non-executive chairman. Non-executive director John Aldersey Williams is acting chief executive pending the appointment of a permanent replacement.
SeaEnergy said Mr Remp will receive £503,000 compensation under his service agreement.
Steven Bertram remains managing director.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article