Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd on Wednesday said Chief Executive Officer John Cowan has resigned after just four months on the job.

COPL shares jumped 15% to 0.37 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. The stock remains down 63% over the past week, however.

Canadian Overseas Petroleum is an oil and gas exploration, development and production company based in London and Calgary, Canada. It has operations in Converse and Natrona counties in the US state of Wyoming.

The company did not give a reason for Cowan’s resignation but said he will remain on the board for the time being while a replacement is found.

Cowan, who had been a company director since 2015, was appointed CEO in September.

The oil and gas explorer had a challenging week in the run-up to Christmas, after reporting last Monday that its non-binding Cole Creek joint venture letter of intent with ‘an established energy company’ was terminated, and that it planned ‘no further discussions at this stage’.

It followed up on Wednesday to say its indirect affiliate Canadian Overseas’ America’s senior lender was unwilling to amend or waive the terms of its senior credit facility. Canadian Overseas said it expects to require additional financing in January, with no assurance that funds will be secured. ‘Should the company be unsuccessful in raising the required capital, it would have to seek some form of creditor protection,’ it had warned.

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