Sir Michael Fallon joins oil explorer Genel in management team shake-up

FORMER UK defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has joined the board of Genel as the oil explorer beefed up its management team today.

The Kurdistan-focused oiler has hired Fallon as a senior independent director and deputy chairman. He stepped down as an MP last year and was forced to quit as defence secretary in 2017 after Tory colleague Andrea Leadsom accused him of making lewd remarks.

Genel was founded in 2011 by former BP chief executive Tony Hayward, who had big aspirations to build it into a FTSE 100 giant. Hayward left in 2017 alongside co-founder Nat Rothschild.

Genel has never reached the dizzy heights it set out to achieve, hit by the fall in global oil prices and problems at its key asset, the Taq Taq field, which has failed to produce on the scale the backers had hoped.

It was valued at more than £3 billion in 2014 but that has fallen to £500 million.

Genel also announced David McManus as chairman. He is an oil and gas industry veteran who has held roles at companies including BG Group, Pioneer Natural Resources and Shell.