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Business
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Eco Atlantic Secures Key Partnerships to Advance Offshore Exploration

By
Diligence Posts Editorial Team

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas has spent the past fiscal year reshaping its approach to frontier exploration, moving away from shouldering early-stage costs alone and towards a model built on joint-venture partnerships. The company holds interests across the Atlantic Margin, spanning Namibia, South Africa, Guyana and the Falkland Islands, and its recent activity has centred on bringing in larger partners to fund exploration while it retains working interests in the underlying licenses. The result, according to the company, is a materially reduced financial exposure across its portfolio at a stage when offshore exploration typically carries the highest risk.

The most substantial of these transactions was agreed in April, when Eco Atlantic entered into a farm-down agreement covering three offshore Namibia licenses, PEL 97, 99 and 100. Under the terms of the deal, bp will take a 60 per cent stake in the licenses in exchange for funding the current phase of exploration, which includes extensive 3D seismic surveys across the acreage. Eco Atlantic will retain a 25 per cent working interest in the licenses once the transaction completes. The arrangement allows the company to continue exploring the Namibian basin, an area that has drawn significant industry interest following a string of discoveries in the region, without carrying the full cost of seismic acquisition itself.

South Africa has become the site of two separate but concurrent operations for the company. In Block 1 CBK, Eco Atlantic has agreed, subject to final approval, to transfer a 37.5 per cent interest and operatorship to Navitas Petroleum. Under this agreement, exploration costs on the block will be covered by Navitas, mirroring the funding structure used in the Namibian farm-down. Separately, in Block 3B/4B, the company is awaiting final environmental approvals before it can spud its maiden exploration well. Eco Atlantic has said it is fully funded for the first two wells on the block, and expects to receive a payout of $11.5 million from its joint venture partners once drilling begins. The two South African blocks illustrate the same pattern seen elsewhere in the portfolio, with partners assuming a greater share of upfront cost in return for equity in the licenses.

In Guyana, the company is in ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Natural Resources over a new license covering the Orinduik Block, an area it has held interests in for several years. Eco Atlantic expects these negotiations to conclude by the third quarter of 2026. Once a new license is granted, the company has said it intends to pursue further appraisal work on the block alongside its existing partners, building on data gathered from previous drilling campaigns in the area.

The company has also moved to expand its footprint in the South Atlantic through acquisition rather than exploration. It has agreed to acquire JHI Associates, a transaction intended to increase its presence in the North Falkland Basin, adjacent to acreage already under development by other operators in the area. The company has described the acquisition as a means of consolidating its position in a basin it regards as strategically important, without disclosing further financial details of the transaction.

Speaking on the company's progress, the chief executive said the past twelve months had transformed Eco Atlantic's financial position. The company had moved from bearing the full cost and risk of frontier exploration to a structure in which major partners now fund the bulk of early-stage work across its licenses. This shift, the chief executive said, reflected a deliberate strategy to preserve capital while retaining exposure to some of the most closely watched exploration basins on the Atlantic Margin. With agreements now in place or under negotiation in Namibia, South Africa, Guyana and the Falklands, the company said it was well placed to advance its exploration programme through the remainder of the year without the capital demands that had previously constrained its pace of activity.