"I'm not sure why they haven't," said Burgess. Black Rock advised the AIM market in London on 16 January that Burgess was joining the board. Burgess said he had lodged his resignation on the 13th January.

"This appointment is the first step in revitalising Black Rock's oil & gas initiatives and the directors anticipate further progress in the short term on a number of different initiatives for Black Rock," said the company.

"It is intended that Burgess will be responsible for the introduction of new oil & gas projects to Black Rock, the consideration for which will be the issue of new ordinary shares in the Company, initially up to a maximum of 25 million ordinary shares.

"The new projects will be principally located in Australia, and any transaction will be subject to satisfactory due diligence and any necessary shareholder and regulatory approval," said the company statement.

Burgess said he would still be assisting in the completion of the sale by Norwest of its stake in the Cliff Head discovery in the offshore Perth Basin to Itochu.