The head of Ithaca Energy, which owns the majority of the controversial Cambo oil field, enjoyed a surge in pay last year as the company completed its "long-held ambition" of a listing on the London market.

The newly-published annual report for 2022 shows that executive chairman Gilad Myerson received total remuneration of nearly £7.83 million last year, up from £1.1m in 2021. While his base salary increased from £257,000 to £458,000, the majority of the increase was made up of of the value of more than 2.5 million Ithaca shares that vested with Mr Myerson when they began trading on the London Stock Exchange in November of last year.

Previously listed on London's junior Alternative Investment Market (AIM), Ithaca was taken over by Israel's Delek Group in 2017 in a deal that valued the firm at £1 billion.

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Ithaca was newly a producer at that time, but Delek added significant scale in 2019 with the purchase of stakes in 10 North Sea fields from Chevron. It went on to acquire a 70 per cent stake in the Shell-operated Cambo field located west of Shetland in April 2022 with a £1.1bn deal to take over Siccar Point Energy.

Ithaca returned to London following the introduction of new listing rules implemented at the end of 2021 that reduced the proportion of shares required to be in public hands from 25% to 10%. Ithaca has a free float of approximately 12%, with Delek as its largest shareholder.

The company has 28 producing oil fields in the UK Continental Shelf with average output of 71,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2022, and is the lead operator in nine of those fields. It has stakes in six of the 10 largest producing fields in the UKCS.

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"We completed three value-accretive acquisitions, with one in particular – Siccar Point Energy– being nothing less than transformative, adding scale and longevity to our reserves base," Mr Myerson wrote in his chairman's statement to shareholders.

"Alongside these we drove increased production and improved financial metrics, while also focusing on reducing our net debt position."

He added: "With our enviable portfolio of brownfield and greenfield development opportunities such as Rosebank, Cambo, Captain EOR, Fotla, Marigold, K2 and Montrose Infill, and a relentless pursuit for value creation, our core focus in 2023 will be on highgrading investment across our current portfolio, while keeping a watchful eye on consolidation opportunities, to maximise shareholder returns."