VANCOUVER, March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - Canadian-based,
New Zealand oil and gas producer
TAG Oil Ltd., (TSX: TAO and OTCQX: TAOIF) is pleased to announce
that Mr. Alex Guidi – the Company's
Chairman and founder – has been appointed interim Chief Executive
Officer.
Mr. Guidi commented: "As an established oil producer and
reserve-based, high-impact exploration company, TAG is poised for
future growth internationally. The Company enjoys the benefits of a
diverse suite of attractive drill-ready opportunities situated in
the prolific Taranaki-region discovery trend, underpinned by high
netback production and core oil field development, which has been
substantially de-risked over the past four years. My mandate as
interim CEO is to capitalize on TAG's strong position, with a view
to drive shareholder value, while at the same time, ensure that the
capital markets better understand TAG's deep value relative to its
peer group companies. Personally, I'm excited by the many corporate
and operational opportunities this presents, and look forward –
with the help of our excellent corporate and operating teams in
both Canada and New Zealand – to take TAG through the next
stage of corporate growth."
Mr. Guidi is a significant shareholder in TAG, and his oil and
gas investments in New Zealand
date back to 1993 when he founded Indo-Pacific Energy Corp. and
Trans-Orient Petroleum Ltd. Mr. Guidi's efforts paved the way
for more than $300 million to be
invested into New Zealand's
petroleum sector – which resulted in oil and gas discoveries,
production interests, infrastructure – and operated several joint
ventures, which attracted numerous international explorers to
New Zealand's petroleum
sector.
TAG's New Zealand Country Manager and 30-year oil and gas
industry veteran Max Murray, will be
reporting directly to Mr. Guidi. "I'm looking forward to exciting
times ahead, and to working more closely with Alex as we continue
TAG's planned Taranaki exploration programs and reserve growth, and
to explore other opportunities for value creation," noted Mr.
Murray.
About Alex Guidi
Mr. Guidi (56) is a successful international oil and gas
entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of the industry holding company,
International Resource Management Corp. (IREMCO). Upon its
inception in 1989, the IREMCO group of companies expanded rapidly
by acquiring and operating extensive oil and gas exploration
concessions and production interests around the world, including
Canada, Argentina, Peru, China,
Australia, New Zealand, Papua
New Guinea and in the Indonesian-Australian Timor Sea
Gap.
IREMCO's Australasian efforts, which began in 1993, have
resulted in one of the region's most widespread exploration
campaigns, leading to exploration discoveries in New Zealand and major gas discoveries in
Papua New Guinea, strategic
mergers and acquisitions, joint-ventures, farm-out agreements, and
sale of assets or control to larger corporations including Philips
Petroleum, Talisman Energy, Origin Energy, Genesis, Boral Energy,
Infratil Limited, Apache Corp., Mosaic, Beach Petroleum, Elf
Aquitaine, Pan Canadian, and a number of other international oil
explorers.
Some of the IREMCO group companies have ranked among
North America's best performing
independent oil and gas companies in the past years, attracting
more than 20,000 stockholders worldwide. Under Mr. Guidi's
leadership, the IREMCO group of companies experienced significant
shareholder value creation, growing from an initial market
capitalization of less than $300,000
to reach a cumulative market capitalization of more than a billion
dollars, with listings on senior North American exchanges.
Mr. Guidi began his career in the oil industry as a drilling
roughneck. In the late 1980s, he was an early adopter of the
then-revolutionary horizontal drilling technology for mature oil
fields in South East Saskatchewan,
playing a key role in transforming Williston Basin-focused Walking
Stick Oil and Gas Ltd. into an operator, producer, and
development-stage entity that was later acquired by Bonavista
Petroleum.
TAG Oil Ltd.
TAG Oil Ltd. (http://www.tagoil.com/) is a Canadian-based
development-stage oil and gas company with extensive operations,
including production infrastructure, in the Taranaki region of
New Zealand. As one of
New Zealand's leading operators,
TAG is poised for long-term, reserve-based growth, and is
positioned with attractive exploration activities in the lightly
explored Taranaki Basin discovery fairway. As a low cost, high
netback oil and gas producer, TAG is debt-free and reinvests its
cash flow into development and step-out drilling along trend with
the Company's existing production.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Statements contained in this news release that are not
historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve
various risks and uncertainty affecting the business of TAG. Such
statements can be generally, but not always, be identified by words
such as "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates",
"forecasts", "guidance", "schedules", "prepares", "potential" and
similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would",
"may", "could" or "should" occur. All estimates and statements that
describe the Company's objectives, goals, forecasts, guidance,
production rates, test rates, optimization, timing of operations,
increased pace of drilling, statements regarding prospects being
drill ready and/or future plans with respect to the drilling and
field optimization work in the Taranaki Basin are forward-looking
statements under applicable securities laws and necessarily involve
risks and uncertainties including, without limitation: risks
associated with oil and gas exploration, development, exploitation
and production, geological risks, marketing and transportation,
availability of adequate funding, volatility of commodity prices,
environmental risks, competition from other producers, and changes
in the regulatory and taxation environment. Actual results may vary
materially from the information provided in this release, and there
is no representation by TAG Oil that the actual results realized in
the future would be the same in whole or in part as those presented
herein.
Other factors that could cause actual results to differ from
those contained in the forward-looking statements are also set
forth in filings that TAG and its independent evaluator have made,
including TAG's most recently filed reports in Canada under NI 51-101, which can be found
under TAG's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. TAG undertakes no
obligation, except as otherwise required by law, to update these
forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs,
estimates or opinions, or other factors change.
SOURCE TAG Oil Ltd.