At the time Smith said his investment was passive and he endorsed the current board. However he has now called for an extraordinary general meeting, and said he spoke for about 40% of the shareholders, a figure managing director Gerald Johnson hotly disputed.

Smith looks to have joined forces with the Petroleum Ventures investment group, a collection of oilfield executives, fronted by recruiter Andrew Childs.

Members of this group, which includes lawyer Stuart Barrymore and Arc Energy's Eric Streitberg among numerous others, also backed the failed attempt by former chairman, Des Luplau, to remove founding directors Johnson and Ildiko Wowesny in October.

Barrymore said this morning he was not aware of the latest move until reading media reports last week.

Smith said he would be putting himself and fellow Impress director, Doug Jendry, on the board until new management was found.

Johnson said to call an EGM when they were about to drill the Janovice well and bring their two oil production wells back online after the European freeze was mischievous.

"The shareholders voted on this exact issue in November. To go through all this again, is detrimental to all the shareholders. We don't need to waste time and money on this exercise when we should be out there drilling wells," he said.

A Carpathian statement this morning said the company was seeking legal advice as to whether the requisitions were valid.

"These notices have been lodged despite shareholders' recent endorsement, at a general meeting held on 7 October 2003, of Mr Johnson and Ms Wowesny continuing as directors. At that general meeting, more than 74% of Carpathian's issued capital was voted on the resolutions," said the statement.

Disclosure: the author holds Carpathian shares.