Oil price, Eco Atlantic, Petro Matad, Sunda.

WTI (Oct) $95.78 -$4.52, Brent (Nov) $100.34 -$3.53, Diff -$4.56.

USNG (Oct) $2.84 -7c, UKNG (Oct) 183.12p -10.38p, TTF (Oct) €73.875 -€4.135. 

Oil price

Oil is down again today, as I write WTI is down $2.48 and Brent -$1.88 as optimism about talks at the UN prevails. All the reasons in yesterdays blog still stand with China also at the top of the agenda ahead of the Presidential talks on Thursday. 

Also Iran has signalled that they would be prepared to take part in talks at the highest level when their delegation arrives at the UN for the General Assembly so the market, as it always does, has fallen for the wheeze. Finally data tells us that the SPR is now down to 284.6m barrels, the lowest since October 1982 and perilously close to the dregs in the system.

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas

Eco (Atlantic) has announced, further to the Company’s announcements on December 4, 2025 and May 20, 2026, completion of its farm down of a 37.5% working interest in Block 1 CBK offshore South Africa and transfer of Operatorship of the Block to Navitas Petroleum LP following receipt of the requisite regulatory approvals (Section 11) from the government of South Africa and the TSX Venture Exchange (“Completion“).

Completion of the Farm Down, initially announced in May 2026, represents another key milestone in Eco’s strategic framework agreement with Navitas (the “Strategic Framework”) and follows an extensive review of the Block’s existing geological data by both Eco and Navitas.

Block 1 CBK, which spans 19,929 km² offshore South Africa, directly abutting the Namibian border, has both oil and gas potential and benefits from three legacy exploration wells which confirmed a gas discovery with tested flow rates of 32.4 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) as well as additional gas shows and oil indications. Certain prospectivity on the acreage is considered geologically analogous to both the Kudu gas field to the north and sits immediately southeast of recent light oil discoveries made by Galp Energia (Mopane), TotalEnergies (Venus), and Rhino Resources (Capricornus). The most recent, closest light-oil discovery to the Block is Shell’s Merlin-1X exploration well (June-2026), which lies 70km away.

Following Completion, Eco now holds a 37.5% WI in Block 1 CBK (up to 47.5% assuming the exercise of the option with OrangeBasin Energies (Proprietary) Limited (“OrangeBasin Energies”) referenced below) with Navitas assuming Operatorship of the Block with a 37.5% WI (up to 47.5% assuming the exercise of the Eco-OrangeBasin Energies option).

As part of the Farm Down, Eco has now also received a US$4.0 million cash payment from Navitas. Additionally, Eco will be carried by Navitas for the work programme, the value of the carry being capped at US$7.5 million net to Eco. The amounts carried by Navitas will be repaid via Eco’s share of proceeds from future production on the Block.

As detailed in the Company’s announcement on December 4, 2025, on December 3, 2025, Eco, through its subsidiary Azinam South Africa Limited (“Azinam SA“), signed an exclusive option agreement with its local partner OrangeBasin Energies, (the “Option Agreement“) to acquire a further 20% participating interest in Block 1 CBK for a cash and shares consideration. Navitas has the right to acquire 50% of this option (representing a 10% WI), which is exercisable at Eco’s and Navitas’ mutual consent and discretion at any point throughout the term of the initial exploration period expiring in February 2028.

The resulting ownership structure is therefore expected to be as follows:

Gil Holzman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eco Atlantic, commented:

“Completion of the Block 1 CBK farm down marks another important milestone in our Strategic Framework with Navitas, extending our partnership into South Africa and demonstrating the value of our growing collaboration across multiple jurisdictions.

“Navitas is a highly experienced global operator and producer with an exceptional track record of developing offshore resources. Their expertise, tied with South Africa’s growing need to bring new domestic gas supplies online to meet in-country demand, provides strong foundations to progress the development of Block 1 CBK’s sizeable resources.

“Since announcing the Farm Down, our technical teams have worked closely together, and we look forward to a smooth operational transition to Navitas and continued collaboration with our partners and in-country stakeholders to advance Block 1 CBK and unlock further value from the licence.

“We are grateful to the Government of South Africa, and particularly the Petroleum Agency of South Africa for the smooth and efficient regulatory process, as well as to Navitas, our advisers and all those involved in reaching this milestone.

“More broadly, we continue to make good progress towards completing the other strategic transactions announced earlier this year, including the acquisition of JHI, the farm down of our Namibian licences to BP, and negotiations for a new PSA covering our Orinduik acreage in Guyana. Each is progressing well and remains on track for finalisation as guided during 2026, further strengthening and advancing Eco’s portfolio across the Atlantic Margin.”

This is another milestone in Eco’s progress as it completes the farm-down and transfer of operatorship of the Block CBK-1 in South Africa to Navitas. This is a good deal for Eco, it brings in a cash payment of $4m from Navitas and they will also be carried for the work programme to the tune of a capped $7.5m paid from Eco’s share of proceeds from future production on CBK-1.

Along with this Navitas becomes the operator and they have proved in recent years that they are highly qualified in discovering and developing oil and gas and are dynamic and quick in their decision making. 

In addition the deal gives Eco the option to acquire another 20% in the block as they and Navitas will be able to take up most of the OrangeBasin Energies stake. Should this happen Eco and Navitas will have 47.5% each with OrangeBasin retaining 5%.

This will immediately strengthen the balance sheet to the tune of $4m leaving Eco fully financed and in a very healthy position and with Navitas as its partner gives incredible ability to deliver in this important part of what is a very exciting portfolio of assets.

Eco has been very busy this year, whilst this is the first closing of a string of transactions that have been announced this year there is much yet to come. They are with BP in Namibia, JHI in the Falklands and Navitas again in Guyana which should follow maybe quite soon. It proves that Eco is continuing to deliver on a series of transactions which are set to be rewarding to shareholders time and again.

At 45p this morning the shares are up 7.2% and whilst they are slightly off the April peak they are still up over 500% year on year, a magnificent achievement but I believe there is more to come. Looking at the deals yet to be announced I have no reason to worry about my 150p target price which could indeed still be conservative, after all the company is in most of the sectors best post codes and has much to come. 

Petro Matad

Petro Matad has provided the following update on its 2026 Oil Sales Agreement.

Despite having issued written confirmation in August to Petro Matad and the Mongolian government that all its internal issues with respect to the 2026 Oil Sales Agreement had been resolved and that export and sale of Petro Matad’s 2026 production would commence, PetroChina has now advised that internal discussions are still ongoing within its head office. PetroChina’s Mongolia subsidiary has said it cannot process Petro Matad’s invoices until these discussions are completed. In addition, in anticipation of the forthcoming Chinese national day holidays at the start of October, during which its oil import from Mongolia is suspended, and given that its storage tanks in Block XIX are now close to capacity, PetroChina has instructed Petro Matad to cease delivery of Block XX production. The Heron-1 and Gazelle-1 wells have therefore been shut in and whilst the shutdown will give some time for reservoir pressure to build up with the potential for some increased delivery on re-start, this was obviously not Petro Matad’s plan.

This latest development in the long running saga is unexpected and unwelcome. Petro Matad has made its displeasure clear to PetroChina and in consultation with the Mongolian authorities is pursuing regulatory, ministerial and diplomatic channels to bring an end to this frustrating situation. The Company has elevated the matter to the office of Mongolia’s Deputy Prime Minister and he has met PetroChina Mongolia management to seek a definitive conclusion as quickly as possible.

In addition to the efforts being made to resolve PetroChina’s Oil Sales Agreement issues, the Company continues to pursue discussions with prospective buyers to find cost effective alternative routes to market in case the delay to the sale of the Company’s accumulated crude continues. In line with our last operational update in August, until 2026 oil sales revenue is received, Petro Matad continues to manage its cash resources very carefully and has sufficient cash on hand to continue operating into 2027.

 Mike Buck, CEO of Petro Matad, said:

“This latest development beggars belief, particularly on the back of the written assurances received last month that all had been resolved. We are working with all stakeholders to bring this sorry saga to a satisfactory conclusion once and for all.”

It’s difficult to know what to say about this appalling behaviour by PetroChina, I wish that I could say that it comes as a surprise…It clearly means that Matad will have to shut-in Heron-1 and Gazelle-1 wells and hope that there is no reservoir damage, hoping of course that pressure will build up ahead of a hoped-for re-start before long. 

I have considerable sympathy for Mike Buck and his team who have been well and truly legged over by PetroChina who should know better, but whether the Mongolian Government can do anything about it is hard to expect. A worrying time for shareholders who have supported Matad through thick and thin, unfortunately recently mostly thin…

Sunda Energy

Sunda has announced an oversubscribed fundraising consisting of a placing of 335,126,320 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company at a price of 1.5 pence per Ordinary Share to raise approximately £5.03 million before expenses, to be undertaken in two tranches. In addition, a member of the senior management team and certain other investors have agreed to subscribe for 14,873,680 new Ordinary Shares at the Issue Price to raise approximately £0.22 million before expenses.

The Company is also pleased to announce that, in addition to the Placing and Subscription, there will be a separate conditional retail offer of up to 35,000,000 new Ordinary Shares via the WRAP Platform to raise up to £0.525 million (before expenses) at the Issue Price. A separate announcement will be made shortly by the Company regarding the Retail Offer and its terms.

Fundraising highlights

• The Placing and Subscription, which will raise £5.25 million (before expenses), have been undertaken with existing shareholders and new institutional and private investors.

• The net proceeds of the Placing, the Subscription and the Retail Offer will be used principally for the completion payment of the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Matahio Energy NZ Limited  and costs associated with the Acquisition, with additional funds allocated to the Company’s other interests in Timor-Leste and the Philippines. Further details on the Acquisition can be found in the Company’s original announcement of the Acquisition on 8 April 2026 and are also set out below.

• The Placing will be conducted in two tranches: (i) 76,780,601 Placing Shares, being referred to as the “Firm Placing“; and (ii) 258,345,719 Placing Shares, being referred to as the “Conditional Placing“.

• The Subscription will also be conducted in two tranches: (i) 3,407,690 Subscription Shares, being referred to as the “Firm Subscription“; and (ii) 11,465,990 Subscription Shares, being referred to as the “Conditional Subscription“.

• The Firm Placing Shares and Firm Subscription Shares will be allotted and issued utilising the Company’s existing authorities granted at the annual general meeting of the Company held on 26 June 2026.

• The issue and allotment of the Conditional Placing Shares, Conditional Subscription Shares and Retail Offer Shares are conditional, inter alia, upon the passing of certain resolutions to authorise such issue and allotment and disapply statutory pre-emption rights  which will be proposed at a general meeting of the Company to be convened on or about 8 October 2026.

If the Resolutions are not approved by the Shareholders at the General Meeting, the Conditional Placing, the Conditional Subscription and the Retail Offer will not proceed. As a consequence, the anticipated net proceeds of the Conditional Placing, the Conditional Subscription and the Retail Offer would not become available to the Company, and the Company would need to secure or utilise alternative financing to enable completion of the Acquisition.

Sunda Energy plc Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andy Butler, said:

“The oversubscribed Fundraising announced today is a welcome endorsement of Sunda’s repositioning as a full cycle E&P company. The Company can now guarantee upcoming completion payments for the New Zealand acquisition without drawing additional CLNs and following certain contractual formalities and approval of the Resolutions at the General Meeting, the Board intends to cancel the undrawn CLNs. I’m delighted that the Company has secured strong institutional support to complete an acquisition that was enabled by my own material investment, and I thank our incoming and existing shareholders for their participation. The separate WRAP retail offer is intended to allow Sunda’s supportive shareholders to elect to co-invest on the same terms. We look forward to completing the Acquisition, which remains subject to Ministerial consent, and in moving forward to realise the potential in the New Zealand assets in parallel to our efforts to deliver value from the projects in Timor-Leste and the Philippines.”

No surprise here as Sunda had telegraphed this raise in a couple of ways but the shares, down 45% this morning still reacted badly. But CEO Andy Butler deserves praise for fronting up and the institutions have followed him in, albeit at 1.5p a share….

Sunda has also announced a retail offer via the Winterflood Retail Access Platform to raise up to £0.525 million through the issue of new ordinary shares of £0.001 each in the capital of the Company.  Under the Retail Offer up to 35,000,000 New Ordinary Shares will be made available at a price of 1.5 pence per share. 

In addition to the Retail Offer, at 7.00 a.m. on 22 September 2026 the Company announced a placing and subscription of new Ordinary Shares to raise £5.25 million (before expenses) at the Issue Price. The Issue Price represents a discount of approximately 45.5 per cent. to the mid-market price of 2.75p per Ordinary Share on 9 September 2026, being the last practicable date prior to the Company entering into the Capital Access Window on 10 September 2026.

A separate announcement has been made regarding the Placing and Subscription and their terms and sets out the reasons for the Placing, the Subscription and the Retail Offer and use of proceeds. The proceeds of the Retail Offer will be utilised in the same way as the proceeds of the Placing and Subscription.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Retail Offer is not part of the Placing or Subscription. Completion of the Retail Offer is conditional, inter alia, upon the completion of the Placing and Subscription but completion of the Placing and Subscription is not conditional on the completion of the Retail Offer.

The issue of the Retail Offer Shares is conditional upon, inter alia, the passing of certain resolutions to be put to shareholders of the Company at a General Meeting, which is expected to be held on 8 October 2026. A circular containing further details of the proposals and containing the Notice of General Meeting is expected to be despatched to Shareholders on or about 22 September 2026. Following its publication, the Circular will be available on the Company’s website at https://sundaenergy.com/.

Conditional upon the passing of those resolutions, admission of the Retail Offer Shares is expected to occur at 8.00 a.m. on or around 12 October 2026 or such later time and/or date as Allenby Capital, Hannam and the Company may agree (being in any event no later than 8.00 a.m. on 26 October 2026).