OIL and gas entrepreneur Graham Stewart is set to return to the fray eight months after the Faroe Petroleum business he led succumbed to a hostile takeover that put him in line for a multi-million pound payout.

Read more: Faroe bosses quit as takeover of firm triggers £18.6m options payouts

Mr Stewart’s LinkedIn profile shows he has been appointed chairman of Longboat Energy.

Companies House records suggest Mr Stewart has formed London-registered Longboat with two other former directors of Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroleum, Helge Hammer and Jonathan Cooper.

The nature of Longboat Energy is described as the provision of “support activities for petroleum and natural gas extraction”.

Faroe Petroleum was bought by Norway’s DNO in January following a bitter war of words.

The takeover put a £640m valuation on Faroe , which built a big North Sea business on Mr Stewart’s watch. Mr Stewart was left in line for a payout of around £13m in respect of his holding in its shares and related options.Faroe’s directors had maintained DNO’s bid was an opportunistic attempt to buy the firm on the cheap.

Read more: Fate of Scottish oil firm will cause concern in country

A keen rock guitarist, MrStewart helped establish Faroe in 1998 after working at Aberdeen’s Dana Petroleum.

Faroe initially focused on early stage exploration opportunities off the eponymous islands, where Mr Stewart has family links. The firm went on to develop interests in UK and Norwegian waters.

Mr Hammer and Mr Cooper were chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Faroe Petroleum respectively.