WTI ( Sep) $68.57 -$1.81, Brent (Aug) $68.64 -$1.55, Diff -$2.07
USNG (Aug) $3.34 +14c, UKNG (Aug) 84.0p +1.0p, TTF (Aug) €35.035 +€0.235

Oil price

Oil is up just over 50 cents today, the market shrugging off another wayward IEA report. The market was down sharply yesterday as rumours about Opec+ did the rounds but by my sums the September easing may be the last under the agreement.

Angus

As announced on 22 February 2024, Forum Energy Services Limited, restructured their deferred consideration payments with a new profile of £400,000 in June 2024 and £300,000 in each calendar quarter end thereafter until June 2025.  The balance of £1.59 million will become payable, together with interest on the balance, payable in shares, charged at 8% over SONIA increasing to 12.5% from 1 July 2025 (together the “Deferred Consideration”). Forum can (in the event that the Company does not pay in cash) elect to receive payment in new ordinary shares issued at a 15% discount to the 30-Day Volume Weighted Average Price.

The total current outstanding amount is £1.89 million, which includes £300,000 in respect of the quarter to 31 March 2025, and Forum has agreed to suspend its rights to receive payment in new ordinary shares for a period of 6 months (with repayment now falling on 31 December 2025), whilst the Company is completing due diligence on a potential RTO and restructuring the Trafigura Debt.  

Under existing rights, Forum has requested the appointment of a new non-executive director, Richard Glass, with such appointment expected to be announced in due course and subject to standard due diligence. Furthermore, under the revised agreement, Forum has requested the appointment of Jonathan Tidswell-Pretorius as a non-board COO.

Given its shareholding in the Company, Forum is deemed to be a related party of the Company for the purposes of the AIM Rules for Companies. The revision to the terms of the Deferred Consideration constitutes a related party transaction under AIM Rule 13. The Directors of the Company, independent of the transaction, being the full board, having consulted with the Company’s nominated adviser SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP, consider that the terms of the revised arrangements with Forum are fair and reasonable insofar as shareholders are concerned.

Changes to the Board

The Board is actively seeking to appoint a further independent non-executive director and will update the market accordingly. Furthermore, Aleph Commodities Ltd (“Aleph”) has requested the appointment of a new non-executive director, Alexander Craig, with such appointment expected to be announced in due course and subject to standard due diligence.

Post the recent deferring of consideration payments, the balance becomes payable at the end of June 2025 and so £1.59m will become payable on 1st July 2025.  Assuming it is not received in cash, Forum can elect to receive shares instead. 

So, including the £300,000 for the quarter to end March, Forum has agreed to suspend its rights to receive payment in equity for a period of 6 months while the Company is completing due diligence on a potential .

Finally there are some board changes imminent, Forum has requested the appointment of a new NED, Richard Glass’ appointment is expected to be announced in due course and Jonathan Tidswell-Pretorius as a non-board COO is also underway. 

With this RTO in the background all other arrangements probably should go on hold whilst it either happens or it doesn’t, until then bets are off and Angus carries on delivering excellent operational performance at Saltfleetby. 

Petro Matad

Petro Matad has  announced that following the accelerated bookbuild which was announced at 4:35 p.m. on 10 July 2025, the Company has conditionally raised gross proceeds of GBP 2.84 million (c.US$4 million) through the Placing of 323,250,000 new Ordinary Shares, and Subscriptions for 32,169,117 new Ordinary Shares by each of a director and shareholder of the Company at a price of 0.80 pence per share.

Highlights

• The Company has conditionally raised, in aggregate, GBP 2.84 million (c.US$4 million) at a price of 0.80 pence per new Ordinary Share.
• Petrovis Matad Inc. (a Substantial Shareholder as defined under the AIM Rules) is participating in the Subscription for a total of 27,573,529 Subscription Shares with a total value of US$300,000.
• Mike Buck, CEO of Petro Matad, is participating in the Subscription for a total of 4,595,588 Subscription Shares with a total value of US$50,000.
• Conditionally, in aggregate, a total of 355,419,117 Placing Shares and Subscription Shares will therefore be issued, representing approximately 19.32 per cent. of the enlarged share capital of the Company.

Funding allocation strategy

The proceeds of this capital raise will be allocated, as follows:

Heron-1:

• Reducing operating expenditure at the producing Heron-1 well through a low-cost switch from diesel fired power to grid electricity.

Heron-2:

• Low cost testing operations at Heron-2 well which was proven oil bearing in 2024.
• ·    Gazelle-1
• Low cost testing operations at Gazelle-1 which has good log indications of potentially productive oil pay.
• Positive results from Gazelle-1 will also provide information to determine an appraisal strategy for the structure.

Gobi Bear-1

• Perform a test of Gobi Bear-1 where in 2024 logs identified a zone of interest in which geochemical studies on well cuttings indicated that migrated oil may be present.
• In the event of success at Gobi Bear-1, this could add significant oil resources in Block XX.

The planned well testing constitutes a low cost, potentially high impact programme to be conducted over the next 6 months in parallel with ongoing efforts to introduce partners to the Block XX assets to accelerate their development, production ramp up and revenue and so increase shareholder value. With success in the testing operations, these wells can quickly be brought on stream through the existing production facilities at Heron-1 and can add to the Company’s production revenue in the short term.

The balance of the capital raise, including any funds raised from the Retail Offer, will be allocated towards:

SunSteppe Renewable Energy

• Petro Matad’s SunSteppe Renewable Energy joint venture has secured exclusivity on two sizeable projects of 200MW and 1.5GW respectively and land lease and wind resource data gathering are scheduled to start.
• In its role as local developer on these large projects, SunSteppe is looking to reach ready-to-build status in order to secure development premia when investors join the construction phase of the projects.
• Benchmarking past projects in Mongolia indicates that these large projects could attract multi-million dollar development premia from investors once they reach ready-to build status. Some of the proceeds from the capital raise will be directed at these two projects and on other projects that are currently under review by the SunSteppe team.

Block VII

• Conduct geochemical evaluation and field work on this large area into which basins productive for oil to the south in northern China are believed to extend.
• The Company is also seeking partners to join it in exploring this exciting acreage.

Retail Offer

Within the Launch Announcement it was noted that, as part of the Capital Raising, the Company was launching a separate retail offer of up to 62.50 million new Ordinary Shares at the Placing Price on the BookBuild Platform to raise up to a further £0.5m (c.US$0.7m) to provide existing retail shareholders in the United Kingdom with an opportunity to participate in the Capital Raising. A separate announcement will be made on the result of the Retail Offer, expected to be released on 16 July 2025.

Admission

Application will be made for the admission of 355,419,117 Placing Shares and Subscription Shares to trading on the AIM market of London Stock Exchange plc (“Admission”). It is ‎expected that such Admission will take place at or around 8.00 a.m. (London time) on 18 July 2025.

Following Admission, the Group’s share capital and total voting rights will comprise 1,839,302,718 ordinary shares of US$0.01 each and the Group does not hold any shares in treasury. Consequently, 1,839,302,718 is the figure which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Related Party Transaction

As a substantial shareholder, Petrovis Matad Inc.’s participation in the Subscription is deemed to be a related party transaction for the purposes of AIM Rule 13. The independent director of Petro Matad (being for this purpose Tim Bushell), having consulted with the Company’s nominated adviser, Shore Capital, considers that the terms of Petrovis Matad Inc.’s participation in the Subscription are fair and reasonable insofar as Shareholders are concerned.

As a director, Mike Buck’s intended participation in the Subscription is deemed to be a related party transaction for the purposes of AIM Rule 13. The independent Director of Petro Matad (being for this purpose Tim Bushell), having consulted with the Company’s nominated adviser, Shore Capital, considers that the terms of his participation in the Subscription are fair and reasonable insofar as Shareholders are concerned.

Raising a short £3m dependent on the retail offer, gives Mike Buck  money to switch Heron-1 to electricity and doing an acid frac on Heron-2 as well as testing on Gazelle-1 and appraisal strategy for the structure. Along with testing of Gobi Bear-1 and allocating proceeds to SunSteppe Renewable Energy and Block V11 will decide the future of Matad, no pressure there then……

Original article   l   KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog