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Algy Cluff retains North Sea faith

The North Sea pioneer Algy Cluff speaks to Mark Robinson about his life and career in business and natural resources.
May 19, 2016 & Alex Newman

“At the age of seventy-five I look back with some astonishment that I touched life at so many different points,” writes Algy Cluff at the end of his newly-published memoir, Get on with it. Somewhat remarkably, the serial resources entrepreneur and fixture of London markets is not done with the high-risk sector, and believes now is the time to step back into the North Sea.

Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR), which listed in 2012 with the aim of acquiring oil and gas assets in the UK, has begun to build its position in the Southern North Sea at a time when seemingly every other player has abandoned new exploration. Earlier this year, the group moved to acquire up to 25 per cent participating interests in three licences in the Central North Sea and Moray Firth operated by Parkmead Group (PMG). A drilling programme for the Skerryvore and Fynn prospects is set to start next year, with the aim of recovering 400 million barrels of oil gross.

The play is not merely tied to a potential recovery in energy prices, but because CLNR sees the North Sea as being of strategic, if overlooked, importance to the UK. In a recent statement to the market, Mr Cluff put forward his belief that “underground offshore coal gasification could make a significant future contribution to the energy equation by converting billion of tonnes of offshore coal into gas”.

The CLNR executive chairman's name will be familiar to many long-time readers. As one of the first early independent oil explorers in the region in the seventies, Mr Cluff was something of a North Sea pioneer and made several high profile discoveries through CCP North Sea and Cluff Oil. Later ventures – Cluff Resources, Cluff Mining and later Amara mining – focused on mineral exploration in Africa, during which time the former Grenadier Guard also found time to buy and chair The Spectator magazine.

In the video below, Mr Cluff speaks with IC deputy companies editor Mark Robinson about his early moves into investment, his troubled foray into China, and the recent return to the site of his first business success, the North Sea.