The once stock market-listed company – headed by executive chairman Oisin Fanning – confirmed that Julian Tedder has resigned as chief financial officer but refused to say who has replaced him.
Mr Tedder joined the company in 2021.
San Leon also declined to comment on its significantly delayed fundraising plans.
“We can confirm that CFO Julian Tedder has resigned and we have appointed someone else,” said a spokesperson. “We aren’t in a position to make further comment but will update shareholders in due course.”
In January this year, San Leon said it was in talks with a new potential investor after a deal inked with a different backer last year faltered.
The company said funds from a $187m (€167m) deal that it said in 2023 would be ‘transformative’, have so far failed to materialise. At the time, San Leon expected to make an announcement regarding that new investment within days.
However, the company then spoke to other investors and in March said it expected to complete a major refinancing by the end that month.
In June this year, it told investors it had been made the beneficiary of a €500m German government bond and would use it as security to obtain finance from a third party. It expected to announce details of the refinancing within two weeks.
No refinancing has yet been announced.
The company said earlier this year that it has been put under increasing pressure by creditors, including the Irish government. As of March this year, San Leon had about $25m (€22m) in outstanding amounts owed to trade creditors.
A major part of that comprises $7.7m San Leon is due to pay by November this year in respect of certain decommissioning liabilities connected to the Seven Heads gas field.
That gas field off Cork was sold by San Leon in 2012. It had gained ownership of the assets when it bought Island Oil & Gas in 2010.
An initial instalment of $3.3m was due to be paid by San Leon to the government at the end of March last year.
Also in January this year, a petition was filed to bankrupt Mr Fanning. The company said the matter was immediately resolved.
A petition to wind up a key subsidiary of the firm was filed in April this year by Ocean Pearl Maritime. The petition stemmed from an on-going dispute between San Leon and Ocean Pearl.
San Leon and Ocean Pearl Maritime own stakes in a company called Energy Link Infrastructure (Malta), which controls a pipeline and floating storage and offloading vessel dedicated to transporting oil from a producing asset in Nigeria in which San Leon has a stake.
San Leon described the petition as “vexatious” and insisted it would have no bearing on the timing of its funding plans. The hearing of that petition was adjourned by mutual agreement in May and was expected to be heard during the summer. However, it’s understood that has now been pushed back to next year.