WTI (Dec) $60.15 -$1.16, Brent (Dec) $64.40 -$1.22, Diff -$4.25 -6c
USNG (Nov) $3.35 -9c, UKNG (Nov) 79.85p +1.1p, TTF (Nov) €31.9 +€0.43

Oil price

Oil has rallied today ahead of the Trump/Xi summit tomorrow where tariff agreements are scheduled to be ratified. Slightly less attractive is the prospect of Opec+ adding another 137/- b/d at their meeting on Sunday but the feeling is that most countries cannot get to their quota if they tried. 

Union Jack Oil

Union Jack has announced that following the receipt of proxies, it has become evident that there are insufficient votes in favour of the resolution to be put to shareholders at the General Meeting, due to be held on 30 October 2025 at 11:00 a.m. and therefore the Directors have decided to withdraw the resolution and, accordingly, to cancel the GM.

At the proxy voting deadline yesterday, a total of 40,194,574 votes had been received from shareholders in connection with the resolution. Of these votes, approximately 21,098,060, representing approximately 13.8% of the Company’s issued share capital are in favour of the resolution and approximately 19,096,514, representing approximately 12.49% are against the resolution. As is it unlikely that the special resolution will pass, the Board have decided to cancel the GM.

The Board remains of the view that it would be in the interests of all shareholders in the Company to share in its future growth and success, but has noted the views of shareholders regarding the resolution put forward. The Board remains open to constructive engagement with shareholders.

Well I’m afraid that I don’t understand this at all, but I’m sure that someone will let me know, something for nothing with little dilution and shareholders pass on it….

Touchstone Exploration

Touchstone has announced that, following the closing of the Retail Offer on the BookBuild platform on October 28, 2025, 6,181,818 new common shares with no par value (“Common Shares”) in the capital of the Company (the “Retail Offer Shares”) will be issued at an issue price of 11 pence per Retail Offer Share, to raise the maximum gross proceeds available under the Retail Offer of £0.68 million.

Accordingly, the aggregate gross proceeds raised from the Retail Offer and the private placement announced by the Company on October 24, 2025 is £7.0 million (approximately US$9.33 million).

Capitalised terms used in this announcement, unless otherwise defined in this announcement, have the meaning given to them in the Retail Offer launch announcement released by the Company at 7.05 a.m. on October 24, 2025. References to times are to London times unless otherwise stated.

Admission, settlement and total voting rights

Application has been made for 63,636,363 new Common Shares (comprising the Retail Offer Shares and 57,454,545 new Common Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placing) to be admitted to trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) and AIM (“Admission”). Subject to the receipt of required approvals from the TSX and AIM, admission to AIM will take place at or around 8.00 a.m. on October 30, 2025. Admission to the TSX will take place upon settlement of the Placing, on or around October 30, 2025.

The Placing and Retail Offer are conditional on, among other things, Admission becoming effective (including final approval for the listing of the new Common Shares on the TSX) and the placing agreement entered into between the Company and Shore Capital in connection with the Placing not being terminated in accordance with its terms. Completion of the Retail Offer is conditional, inter alia, upon the completion of the Placing.

The Company currently has 261,097,246 Common Shares in issue. Following Admission, the Company’s issued share capital will consist of 324,733,609 Common Shares. The Company does not hold any Common Shares in treasury and, therefore, following Admission, the total number of voting rights attributable to the common shares in the capital of the Company will be 324,733,609. This figure may be used by shareholders to determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company.

The extra from the retail offer of £0.68m will, when added to the Private Placement make a handy £7m for investing in the drilling programme. After the problems at the last placing when a potential investor failed to show up with the moulah this will make life a great deal easier for Touchstone, the shares are due a decent rally.

Petrofac

Further to its announcement on 23 October 2025, Petrofac provides the following update.

Having carefully assessed its options, and the impact of TenneT’s decision to terminate Petrofac’s scope of work on the 2GW programme in the Netherlands, the Directors of Petrofac Limited (the Group’s ultimate holding company) have applied to the High Court of England and Wales to appoint administrators to Petrofac Limited.

This is a targeted administration of the Group’s ultimate holding company only.

The Group’s operations will continue to trade, and options for alternative Restructuring and M&A solutions are being actively explored with its key creditors, including the Ad Hoc Group of Noteholders, who are supporting the Group with continued forbearance arrangements whilst alternative options are explored. The Group also retains the support of its RCF and Term Loan lenders who continue to extend maturities on a rolling basis.

When appointed, administrators will work alongside Executive Management to preserve value, operational capability and ongoing delivery across the Group’s operating and trading entities.

I think that I have said just about as much as I need to about PetrofacGate, the speed with which this once admired, leading company in its own field has gone off the rails is a business school lesson in management incompetence of the highest order. I have known the company from its inception and travelled the world with it, in the Middle East it was venerated and the gold standard of its field, what a complete shambles. 

The only positive note is that the administrators are working at the Group level, this might protect the day to day business such as the duty holder responsibilities in the North Sea and some contracts. 

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