Columbus Energy Resources appoints Tony Hawkins to its Board of Directors as CEO

– UK, London –  Columbus Energy Resources Plc (LON: CERP), the oil and gas producer and explorer with operations in Trinidad and Suriname, today announced the appointment of Tony Hawkins as its CEO, effective immediately.

Leo Koot remains Executive Chairman and will continue to work alongside Tony on a full-time basis in growing the business in a manner consistent with the strategy roadmap.

Mr Hawkins has been employed as the Company’s Legal and Commercial Director since January 2018 and will now join the Board. Tony is a dual British & Australian national with over 20 years of industry experience, including significant time working on projects and operations related to Trinidad, and adds both commercial and legal expertise to the Board.

Leo Koot, Executive Chairman, commented: “Tony has been instrumental over the last two years in helping plan and then execute on the Company’s strategy. This includes restructuring the BOLT transaction, the Steeldrum transaction and the Weg Naar Zee transaction in Suriname. Tony’s role will be to make sure the Company is run efficiently, manage any appraisal and development of the Saffron prospect and co-ordinate the appraisal and development of the Weg Naar Zee block in Suriname.

I will continue in my role as Executive Chairman and see the benefit in separating the role of Chairman and CEO.

I remain committed to the Company and with Tony responsible for the day to day operations, I can dedicate my time to growing the business in a manner consistent with our strategy roadmap. At present, I am working at the Saffron well site, helping the Columbus team in Trinidad ensure we deliver an optimal drilling campaign, whilst Tony is ensuring all other aspects of the business are being managed efficiently and effectively.

I look forward to working with Tony and the rest of the team to continue to advance the interests of the Company and its shareholders.”

About Tony Hawkins

Tony Hawkins is a commercial adviser and qualified lawyer of over 20 years’ experience. His experience is in advising on and implementing large scale M&A and project developments. He also has experience in asset management and Legal & Regulatory compliance. These skills have been predominately in oil and gas but also in power, LNG and renewables. Prior to Columbus, Mr Hawkins was General Counsel & Head of Commercial for Sterling Energy plc, a London listed oil & gas company. He was also the company secretary. Prior to Sterling Energy, he spent 6 years at the upstream division of Centrica plc. During this period, he spent 4 years working on Centrica’s oil & gas assets in Trinidad and gained significant experience of the regulatory and operational requirements of Trinidad. He holds a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Arts and is and English qualified lawyer.

About Columbus Energy Resources Plc

Columbus Energy Resources Plc is an oil and gas producer and explorer focused on onshore Trinidad and Suriname. In Trinidad, the Columbus Energy group has five producing fields, one appraisal/development project and a highly prospective exploration portfolio in the South West Peninsula, which lies in the extreme southwest of Trinidad and consists of stacked shallow and deep prospects. In Suriname, the Company has recently secured an onshore appraisal/development project. Columbus and aims to create transformational growth by developing its portfolio in a capital efficient and disciplined manner.

Columbus is guided by the following core values; safe and sustainable, stronger together, creative excellence, positive energy, totally trusted and personally responsible.

The Company is led by an experienced Board and senior management team with supportive shareholders and intends on leveraging its expertise and experience to build an attractive and diversified portfolio of assets across South America in order to build an oil production led South American exploration business.

For more information: https://columbus-erp.com

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