Founding director and former chief executive of oil and gas producer Tap Oil, Paul Underwood, has resigned as a non executive director of the company.

Mr Underwood was one of the company's founding directors when the company went public in 1996 and was the company's chief executive and managing director until the end of 2007.

He then assumed the position of executive director before becoming a non-executive director in the middle of last year.

Tap has projects off the North West Shelf, the Bass Basin and in Brunei and the Philippines.

Tap shares were off 3.5 cents, or 2.98 per cent, to $1.14 at 11am.

STUART McKINNON