The shareholders of Buccaneer Energy Ltd. split the difference on July 2, re-electing two of the four existing directors of the company and adding three new directors to the board.
CEO Curtis Burton retained his seat on the board of the company he founded, as did Finance Director Dean Gallegos, but shareholders voted to remove Chairman Alan Broome and Director Frank Culberson from the board of the Australian independent.
The shareholders also appointed Nicholas Davies, Clinton Adams and Shaun Scott, who had been nominated by the two Hong Kong-based shareholders who called the meeting.
Also on July 2, Buccaneer appointed Brian Moller to be a non-executive director and Gallegos to become its new chairman of the board, both “effective immediately.”
By giving a nod to each side, the shareholders created the possibility for future disputes as Buccaneer decides how best to proceed on its operations in the Cook Inlet basin.
With the subsequent appointment of Moller, an Australian, each side would appear to now have three allies on the six-member board. To complicate matters further, Buccaneer announced several days before the vote that the venture capital firm Meridian Capital international Fund had acquired a 19.99 percent stake in the company. The deal allows Meridian to appoint a nominee to the board, a right the firm has yet to exercise.
—Eric Lidji
See story in July 7 issue, available online at 11 a.m. Friday July 5 at www.PetroleumNews.com
