WTI (Apr) $98.71 +$2.93, Brent (May) $103.14 +$1.68, Diff -$4.43 -3c
USNG (Apr) $3.13 -10c, UKNG (Apr) 132.0p +3.5p, TTF (Apr) €51.8 -€0.395

Oil price

Oil has drifted today as vague hopes of support in the Straits of Hormuz is mooted. It looks as if Chinese and possibly Indian tankers are already sneaking through with Iranian crude on board..

US bombing of Kharg Island continues as they say that for the time being only military targets are being hit, but without success against Iranian drones they will hit oil installations. 

Tower Resources

Tower has provided an update on the approval process in respect of the farm-out transactions with Prime Global Energies Limited in Cameroon and Namibia, announced on 10 January 2025.

Tower is also pleased to announce a subscription of 6,315,785,262 ordinary shares of 0.001p each to raise £1,499,999  at a price of 0.02375p per Subscription Share, being at a discount of approximately 5% to the closing bid price of the Company’s shares on 13 March 2026.

License and Farmout Approval Update

The Company visited both the Societe Nationale de Hydrocarbures (“SNH”) and the Prime Minister during the past two weeks in Cameroon, together with Tower’s partner Prime. The Company has now been informed by SNH that, following requests from the Prime Minister’s office and a further site visit which took place last week, it will recommend to the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (“MINMIDT”) to issue the requested extension of the First Exploration Period of Tower’s Thali license for a further year to March 2027, and to approve Tower’s proposed farmout of a 42.5% interest in the Thali license to Prime, though the Company is still waiting for written confirmation of this. The Prime Minister’s office has separately told the Company that it is convening a meeting together with MINMIDT and SNH to bring the matter to a conclusion, and the Company expects the requisite documentation to follow soon after that meeting.

In Namibia, the Company met with the newly-formed Upstream Petroleum Unit, which reports directly to the President of Namibia, together with representatives from the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy. Following the meeting, Tower has been informed that its request for approval of the farmout to Prime of a 25% interest in PEL96 will now be expedited. The national oil company, NAMCOR, has informed the Company that its due diligence on Prime is now complete, and that is only waiting for some further documentation on Tower’s local partner to complete its file. Investors will recall that the Company has already entered the First Renewal Period of PEL96.

The Company is therefore confident that these approvals will now be documented reasonably quickly, though the Company remains cautious about predicting a precise date for each.

Subscription

The Subscription is being made primarily to repay the convertible Bridge Loan (of £1 million plus accrued interest) previously announced and drawn down in three tranches on 26 March 2025, 1 July 2025, and 1 September 2025. The Bridge Loan is repayable on 25 March 2026 unless previously converted into shares at a conversion price of 0.056p per share. The balance of the Subscription proceeds, net of commissions and fees, will be used for working capital.

The Company has agreed to issue the broker, Axis Capital Markets Limited, warrants over 141,052,526 new ordinary shares for arranging the Subscription (“Broker Warrants”). The period of the Broker Warrants will be three years at a strike price of 0.0475p per share (representing a premium of 100% to the Subscription Price).

Share Capital following the Subscription

The Subscription Shares will rank pari passu with the Company’s existing shares. Application has been made for the Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM in three tranches of 3,121,050,526, 673,684,210 and 2,521,050,526 shares, respectively. It is expected that Admission of the Subscription Shares will become effective and that dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m. on or around 23 March 2026 in respect of the first tranche of 3,121,050,526 shares, 25 March 2026 in respect of the second tranche of 673,684,210 shares, and 30 March 2026 in respect of the third tranche of 2,521,050,526 shares.

Following admission of all three tranches of the Subscription Shares, the Company’s enlarged issued share capital will comprise 40,300,326,423 Ordinary Shares of 0.001p each with voting rights in the Company. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in the interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Warrants and Options in Issue

Following the issue of the Broker Warrants, the total number of warrants in issue is 1,808,562,175 equating to 4.0% of the Company’s enlarged share capital assuming full exercise of all warrants, options and restricted shares.

Tower Resources Chairman & CEO, Jeremy Asher, commented:
“We are very pleased to be approaching the end of the process to receive our farm-out approvals, lengthy as it has been. We had wanted to have these concluded before the repayment date of the Bridge Loan, and it is possible that the documentation of one or both approvals may indeed be in hand by then, but we did not want to allow the potential repayment date to loom too close.

“We are still looking forward to drilling the NJOM-3 well in Cameroon as soon as possible this year, ideally in Q3, but, as usual, this will depend on rig schedules. We will update investors both when the formal documentation has been received and also when we have finalised the rig schedule together with our partners and SNH. We are also working with Prime on an application for a further block in Cameroon during the current license round, and we are continuing to work on further data acquisition on PEL96.

“We look forward to having more to say about these initiatives soon.”

When I last wrote about Tower I said it must be nearly time for real operational activity in the portfolio after years of promise and regular raises. Now, the bad news today is that in the RNS this morning the company is at it again, this time raising £1.5m at 0.02375p per share, a modest 5% discount to the close in order to pay for the convertible bridging loan. 

But I can also confirm that the news actually looks a great deal more positive in both territories, in Cameroon it looks like the Government is set to extend the Thali licence by 1 year to March 2027 and also to approve the farm-out to Prime of a 42.5% WI which means that the NJOM-3 well might actually get drilled in Q3 this year, subject to rig availability. 

In Namibia a farm-out of 25% in PEL96 ‘will now be expedited’ and with negotiations already underway with regard to the First Renewal Period, that subject to some further documentation on Tower’s local partner the authorities should then complete its file. 

So, at the risk of tempting fate I think that I can reasonably expect that good news is imminent, this raise is only needed in case that notably tardy approvals don’t get done before repayment date arrives. At long last Tower shareholders can start to prepare for activity and I for one am pleased for Jeremy Asher who more than most in the industry deserves the plaudits, if for no other reason than durability…

Buccaneer Energy

Buccaneer has announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 100% working interest in the Carlisle-1 well located in the Fouke area of the Pine Mills field. The transaction closed on 13 March 2026, with an effective date of 1 January 2026. 

The Acquisition was partially funded from the proceeds of the £350,000 fundraise previously announced on 2 March 2026. Read the full announcement here. 

Carlisle-1 Well Highlights 

• 100% working interest acquired in the Carlisle-1 well.
• Immediate production of approximately 25 barrels of oil per day (bopd).
• Company production increases to approximately 155 bopd.
• Carlisle-1 features low operating costs of US$6.23/barrel (bbl).
• Strong netback of cUS$65/bbl at current field prices.
• Estimated net cash flow of approximately US$50,000 per month at current oil prices.
• PV10 value of US$910,540 based on independent reserve report using bank price deck (see below).
• Approximately 51,000 barrels of proved reserves (third-party estimate) before waterflood, 256,000 with the waterflood.
• Increases Buccaneer’s interest in the proposed Fouke waterflood unit from approximately 33% to greater than 50%.

Carlisle-1 Asset

The Carlisle-1 well is located within the Pine Mills Field in East Texas, adjacent to Buccaneer’s existing Fouke area wells and producing from the same reservoir horizons as the Fouke 1 and Fouke 2 wells.

The Well is currently producing approximately 25 bopd, generating strong cash margins due to low operating costs. Based on current field prices of approximately US$92/bbl, the Well delivers a netback of approximately US$65/bbl, equivalent to approximately US$50,000 in monthly net cash flow.

Operating costs for the Well were approximately US$6.23/bbl in 2025, highlighting the strong margin profile of the asset.

A third-party reserve report estimates proved developed producing (PDP) reserves of approximately 51,000 barrels of oil, with a PV10 valuation of approximately US$910,540 using a conservative bank (WAFD) price deck (See below). This estimate does not include any reserves associated with the Fouke area waterflood, which are anticipated to be approximately 225,000 barrels under waterflood development or from Buccaneer’s Organic Oil Recovery (“OOR”) programme.

The report was prepared by APN Energy to the SPE PRMS standard and dated 2 March 2026.

The Acquisition further consolidates Buccaneer’s position within the proposed Fouke waterflood unit, where the Company anticipates its working interest will increase from approximately 32.5% to greater than 50% following the addition of the Carlisle-1 well. 

The Well is expected to benefit from both waterflood development and Buccaneer’s OOR programme, which has already demonstrated significant production uplift within the Pine Mills field.

Pumping Unit on the Carlisle-1 Well

Paul Welch, Buccaneer Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“The completion of the acquisition of the Carlisle-1 well immediately increases our production and cash flow while strengthening our strategic position within the Fouke area of the Pine Mills field.

Carlisle-1 is a high-margin producing asset with low operating costs and attractive reserves and increases our interest in the proposed Fouke waterflood unit to greater than 50%, enhancing our operational position as we continue to develop the area.

The Acquisition increases our working interest production to approximately 155 bopd, and with strong oil prices and low onshore operating costs, Pine Mills continues to generate attractive cash margins for the Company. Based on the latest reserve update using the conservative WAFD bank price forecast (shown below), it increases our current NPV10 PDP reserve value to approximately US$10.5 million.

Carlisle-1 also offers attractive capital efficiency, with a projected payout period of approximately 9 months at current pricing.

The Board believes Buccaneer’s current market capitalisation of approximately £1.55 million does not yet reflect the value of its existing producing reserve base, as set out in the latest reserve update using the conservative WAFD bank price forecast, and before any contribution from recent oil price increases, the proposed Fouke waterflood unit, OOR optimisation or broader field development upside. Our focus is on disciplined execution to narrow that value gap through production growth, cash generation, and enhanced recovery initiatives.”

Whilst this is only confirmation of the Carlisle deal it is worth noting that it is a very good one for Buccaneer and its shareholders. The acquisition ticks a number of boxes in that it is accretive and pays back in nine months, Carlisle is a high margin, low cost asset and it increases the company’s position in the Fouke unit to over 50%.

This position is made better by current oil prices and whilst we should not extrapolate these at all, it may serve to remind people of the value of domestic onshore hydrocarbon assets such as these.

I concur with the board who say that ‘the current market capitalisation of approximately £1.55 million does not yet reflect the value of its existing producing reserve base’ and reiterate my positive stance on Buccaneer.

I have also noted previously that the company desperately needs a bit of scale and note that in is comments CEO Paul Welch addresses this and intends to ‘narrow the gap’ between market cap and fair value, however the company is in a good place with substantial potential. 

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