The founder of an island-based energy firm behind plans to extract gas from the Manx seabed is taking the company to an employment tribunal over unlawful deduction of pay.
Former Crogga chief executive officer Diccen Sargent’s case will be heard by the tribunal over four days from November 26-29.
He has lodged his claim for unlawful deduction of pay against holding company Crogga Energy Ltd and its subsidiary Crogga Operations Ltd.
Crogga’s co-founder and long-standing oil industry geologist Juan Cottier had also lodged a tribunal claim but is understood to have withdrawn his complaint on the grounds of eligibility, having been off-island throughout the Covid period.
The two were directors of Crogga Ltd since its formation in 2016 until they resigned in February 2022 amid concerns that the company had become operationally insolvent. The whole technical team had also left in the months before. At a creditors’ meeting in February this year it was resolved to place Crogga Operations into voluntary liquidation with Christopher Paul Shimmin appointed as liquidator.
Documents at Companies Registry show that the company owed more than £1.7m which includes a claim for £128,800 from Mr Sargent and £141,450 from Mr Cottier. The largest claim, for £1,463,305, was submitted by the holding company Crogga Energy.
Crogga Ltd was awarded a licence in October 2018 to carry of a 3D seismic survey and drill an exploratory well.
That licence has been extended three times - the first time in December 2021 for a period of four months and then a 27-month extension was granted. That ran out at the end of July this year but the government has agreed to a further three-month extension.
But the condition of the original licence was that drilling only take place when a new 3D seismic survey was carried out.
The Department of Infrastructure says it has granted the three-month extension to allow Crogga to provide additional information so that its application to vary the licence can be ‘fully considered’.
Crogga Energy’s current directors are Mark Pearce, John Lovelady and Richard Hubbard who was appointed chief executive officer in October 2022 but didn’t join the board until November last year.
Mark Pearce is director of Ellis Brown Architects and along with John Lovelady is a director of JM Project Management, the developer behind the Crosby Meadows estate. Neither has a previous track record in oil and gas exploration.
Mr Hubbard, on the other hand, is certainly well-known for previous roles in the oil and gas industry, having been chief geologist at BP and then director of international operations for Norwegian oil company Statoil until he resigned in 2003.
Mr Hubbard said: ‘Our conversations with DoI are progressing well.’