Former BP boss, Tony Hayward will pocket more than £12m in a first tranche of payouts less than a year after he set up his own company and then bet on Kurdistan being the next big province for the oil industry.

Hayward who left his old employers with a £10m pension pot after the Gulf of Mexico blowout, exercised his rights to a 6.67% stake in the Genel Energy business along with his partners Nat Rothschild and two other executives. The four Genel backers are entitled to a windfall nudging £160m as they swap their "founder" shares in the Vallares investment vehicle they established in return for ordinary shares in Genel. Hayward and the other founders of Vallares will not be able to sell their shares until 21 November under a lock-in arrangement.

The oil investors who had poured £100m of their money into the business could win a further payout. They still control 'C' class shares that entitle them to 15% of any gains should Genel shares rise above a specified price.

A statement from Genel pointed out the initial investment was "risk capital" that left them facing a loss of up to £20m had they not completed a successful acquisition within a specified time frame.

Vallares is still sitting on nearly $2bn (£1.6bn) raised in an initial flotation last year because the cash was not required to merge with the Turkish-based Genel, the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Genel, with stakes in six oilfields in northern Iraq says those interests amount to a potential 356m barrels of proven oil reserves. Genel shares rose 1.2%to 855p still less than the £10 float price.