Former Oil Search executive Ayten Saridas settles her claim over contract and behaviour

Ayten Saridas’ legal settlement against now parent company Santos ends a saga which focused on workplace culture at the company she joined and departed quickly, Oil Search.

Ayten Saridas has settled her legal action against Oil Search, which is now owned by Santos. Picture: Hollie Adams

The former chief financial officer designate of Oil Search is understood to have settled her claim against the company now owned by Santos, ending a legal battle that drew attention to workplace culture.

Ayten Saridas launched a legal claim against Oil Search, alleging the company had breached a contract governing her departure in 2020 after just three months with the fossil fuel giant – an exit she alleges was accelerated by the company’s disparaging behaviour towards her.

Ms Saridas has separately claimed she was forced to leave Oil Search after bullying and harassment by the company’s then-chief executive, Dr Keiran Wulff, and former chief financial officer Stephen Gardiner after she tried to raise concerns about funding issues.

Oil Search, Dr Wulff and Mr Gardiner deny the claims.

Hearings were set to resume on Monday, but The Australian understands a settlement had been reached. A formal announcement is imminent, sources said.

Ms Saridas was to resume giving evidence on Monday, testimony which threatened to test a series of damaging revelations.

In April, during the last round of hearings, a personal friend and colleague of Ms Saridas, Sunil Salhotra, said Oil Search’s former investor relations head, Ann Diamant, told him in May 2021 that Ms Saridas’ time at the company was an “unmitigated disaster”.

Mr Salhotra, an executive who has worked at Santos and Pangaea Resources, said Ms Diamant told him “basically that she (Ms Saridas) was hired because she was a female”. Under cross-examination by Santos’s barrister, Jeremy Clarke, SC, he agreed he could not recall the specific words Ms Diamant allegedly used but insisted his recollection of the “tone and context” of the conversation was ­correct.

Ms Saridas’ legal team was trying to demonstrate that her reputation was damaged. Ms Saridas said her position became “untenable” due to the conduct of Dr Wulff and Mr Gardiner, who she alleged forced her resignation in a manner that amounted to a “constructive dismissal”, in breach of her employment contract.

Ms Saridas has claimed she has since missed out on new jobs because of the behaviour of Oil Search.

Both Dr Wulff and Mr Gardiner have denied those claims. Dr Wulff left Oil Search in 2021, about a year after Ms Saridas, citing health issues.

Oil Search merged with Santos in a deal worth about $21bn in 2021. Investors were urged to accept the offer due to concern Oil Search would not be able to raise the capital needed to deliver its projects without the backing of an even bigger corporation.

A settlement of the claim will allow both sides to exit without further disruptions.

Santos this month said its $335m Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in South Australia’s north, which is designed to help in the transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy, has reached the final commissioning stage.