A North Sea oil chief who urged the UK Government to act more swiftly to help the industry as oil prices plummeted late last year is no longer in his post, it has emerged.
James Edens was vice-president and managing director of Aberdeen-based CNR International until the end of last month.
The 49-year-old hit the headlines in December, when he warned that CNR International may shift investment from the North Sea to other parts of the world after an unsatisfactory outcome to the Treasury’s fiscal review of the oil and gas industry.
He told the then chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, that changes proposed to the UK tax regime were not coming quickly enough to help his company.
“The speed of change here is too slow,” the oil boss told Mr Alexander, adding: “You must speed up, you must accelerate.”
Mr Edens later told the Press and Journal that CNR International, which employs around 2,500 people offshore and 400 in its Aberdeen offices, would have to make cuts to its North Sea business because he had been expecting “bigger changes” from the Treasury review.
It is not known why Mr Edens is no longer in his post, or whether he quit or was pushed.
A spokesman for CNR International confirmed his exit, but would give no further details.
Mr Edens, who Companies House says is British/Canadian and had been a director at CNR International since 2006, could not be contacted.
CNR International is part of Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources (CNR), which slashed its spending plan for 2015 earlier this year as the price of crude continued to fall.
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