Leslie Blair has deep and broad-based experience in the oil and gas industry, especially in West Africa, having been one of the first members of the management team that launched Addax Petroleum Nigeria Limited (“Addax”) in 1998 with the acquisition of the Ashland Oil assets. In ten years with Addax, production was increased from 5,000 bopd to over 130,000 bopd, and reserves were increased six-fold prior to the sale of the company to Sinopec in 2009 for, circa US$ 7.9 billion, this is from an initial investment of circa US$ 100 million. During this period, Addax drilled over 150 wells onshore and offshore, developed the Okwori/Nda Fields, built and installed three FPSOs and raised over US$ 4 billion in debt, and floated the company on the Canadian Stock Exchange in 2007.
In 2010 he was the founder of Eland Oil & Gas plc (“Eland”) which together with the Chrome Group acquired, via Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (“Elcrest”), a 45% equity position in OML 40 from The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (“SPDC”)/Total E&P Nigeria Limited (“Total”)/Nigerian Agip Oil Company (“NAOC”) in August 2012 and served as Managing Director of Elcrest until 2014 and then as an advisor until the company was sold to Seplat Petroleum in December 2019. Eland was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2012 raising over US$ 200 million.
Leslie graduated from Aberdeen University in Scotland and started in the industry directly from university initially in Aberdeen, and worked in various locations including Spain, Egypt, and Libya before moving to Vietnam to head British Gas Exploration & Production operations there, then to India and Nigeria.
He is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom.
