Engelbrecht has more than 13 years of resources industry experience and held several senior financial, commercial management and new business roles prior to joining Carbon Energy.

He joined Carbon Energy in October 2011 and has been effective in structuring transactions to give effect to the company’s new strategic direction, it said in a statement.

Carbon Energy, which specialises in underground coal gasification, uses its proprietary keyseam technology to unlock new energy sources, transforming stranded, deep coal resources into high-value fuels with lower carbon emissions.

Carbon Energy has previously announced two wholly owned assets in Queensland’s Surat Basin, including 1.4 billion tonnes of coal JORC inferred resource, which is part of a 4 to 8 billion tonnes of coal exploration target and 743PJ of Certified 2P syngas reserves.

“The board thanks Andrew for his contribution to the business in a very tough market and for progressing the company from a start-up with an undeveloped technology through to a proof-of-concept stage and initial commercialisation,” the company said.

“The past four years of Andrew’s tenure have been some of the toughest in our history and this achievement is no mean feat.”