Serica Appoints New Chief Operating Officer

Serica has announced that Peter Sadler has been appointed Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect.

Paul Ellis, Serica CEO, said, "I am delighted to welcome Peter to the Company as Chief Operating Officer. Peter has extensive international experience in upstream exploration and production operations in the UK, the Middle East and Australia. His contribution will be invaluable as our exploration, appraisal and development operations gather pace, both in Western Europe and in South East Asia."

Sadler comes to Serica with 30 years experience in international exploration and production with both major and independent oil companies. Until last year he was Chief Executive Officer of Indago Petroleum plc ("Indago"), an AIM listed company with exploration and development activities in the Middle East, where it was developing an offshore gas-condensate field. He then became Chief Executive of RAK Petroleum, a private company, when it acquired the principal assets of Indago.

After graduating from Oxford University in Physics, Peter gained an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College, London and commenced his career as a petroleum/reservoir engineer first in the Middle East and then in the North Sea. For the last fifteen years he has been based overseas, initially in senior technical management roles with Fletcher Challenge Petroleum in New Zealand and Novus Petroleum in Australia and then as Regional Manager Middle East for Novus. In that role he was based in Dubai, where he was later appointed Chief Executive of Indago after it acquired the Middle East portfolio of Novus.

Sadler's compensation package includes 750,000 Serica share options. He will be based in London.