THE Margin hears that former Aran Energy finance director Paul Creedon is heading for fresh pastures after managing Statoil's exploration operations in Ireland for the past 5 months. Statoil was, of course, the victor in the hotly-contested takeover battle for Aran Energy - beating off the unwelcome attentions of Atlantic Richfield.

After Aran was eventually taken over by Statoil for almost £200 million, Mr Creedon stayed on as director and general manager of Statoil Exploration (Ireland), spending much of his time on the restructuring of Aran and its integration into Statoil.