After another trading halt yesterday the company this morning announced Towner had resigned with immediate effect and no replacement for the troubled microcap yet on the horizon.
There are, however, plenty of potential candidates, the company said.
"The board and management of Triangle have greatly valued the depth of experience and support Rob provided during his considerable tenure, and we thank him for his service and ongoing friendship," chairman Timothy Monckton said.
Non-executive chairman Dr Wai-Lid Wong has left his position as his company, Tamarind Resources, had sold its stake in Triangle after going into liquidation last year.
Triangle has had a long run of recent bad luck.
In late 2020 BP announced it was closing the Kwinana refinery Triangle had been trucking its Cliff Head oil to, but neglected to inform the company first.
The company then pulled its updated reserves statement. BP transitioned to an oil storage facility, where Triangle could store crude before sending it overseas. Several months of storage was actually a recent boon as the oil price rose and the company trousered an additional $1 million.
However, an offtake deal signed with BP Singapore later fell over, giving the company nowhere to send its oil, which it was receiving less than market rate for given the ship that collected it had to make the trip from Wyndam in the north of the state already loaded with Buru Energy's Ungani oil.
Triangle has been looking to build a micro-sized modular refinery of its own, entering front end engineering recently.
However its plans to secure more oil and a life extension to its ageing Cliff Head platform, taken from Roc Oil some years ago, ended last week when Pilot Energy summarily cancelled a 2020 deal for Triangle to take a large portion of the next door WA-481-P permit.
Energy News understands it informed the company the same day it told the market; there was no prior discussion.
When Pilot returned to life in late 2020, headed by executive chair Brad Lingo, it announced grandiose plans involving leveraging the Cliff Head infrastructure for offshore wind, which would be used to create both green and blue hydrogen, which in turn could create ‘green' steel from a proximate magnetite iron ore resource that had failed over subsequent decades to be commercialised. Carbon capture and storage would also be involved.
Lingo told Energy News at the time he had been to the unmanned offshore platform in his time as a banker, and said it was windy.
Late last year Pilot formed a consortium with Perth Basin gas player Warrego Energy, RISC and APA Group to explore new energy and CCS.
This project still stands, but without Triangle.
Pilot cited concerns from the offshore titles administrator over Triangle's financial capability to meet work permit obligations, which include a well due in 2024 at an estimated cost of $15 million. Triangle had until March 4 to appeal the decision and said it had not made any submissions of its own to NOPTA, but rather Pilot had.
Triangle now has no life extension project, nowhere to send its 800 barrels a day of oil, no new project and no CEO. It still has 78% of a $25 million decommissioning bill, however. Pilot holds the 22%.
The company is down 12.25% to 1.4c per share this morning.
