United Oil targets October farm-out deal as Hormuz tensions lift Jamaica licence appeal

Offshore explorer United Oil & Gas Plc says it could land a joint-venture partner by October, based on full-year results released this week.

The firm pointed to global supply shocks linked to what it called the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, saying that disruption has made its Jamaican acreage more attractive to investors.

"Our farm-out strategy has gained momentum," Chief Executive Brian Larkin said. "The strategic value of Atlantic-facing acreage with direct access to major markets has been fundamentally repriced, and Jamaica sits squarely in that category."

Larkin linked the shift to fighting involving Iran that erupted in late February 2026 and the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which he said knocked out about one-fifth of worldwide seaborne crude and liquefied natural gas flows. Countries are now looking harder for energy sources beyond the Gulf, he added.

"In this environment the previous oversupply in oil markets has been eradicated," Larkin said. "Frontier exploration returned to the top of the agenda for the world's major oil companies during 2025 and into 2026."

The London-listed company is working toward a farm-out on the Walton Morant licence — a 22,400-square-kilometre offshore tract south of Jamaica — by October 2026. Terms are expected to recover past spending and cover the full forward work programme. Several potential partners are bound by non-disclosure agreements, though United Oil has not named them.

"We are encouraged by the calibre of the counterparties under NDA, reflecting both the quality of the asset and the work we have done to advance it," Larkin said.

Its case has been bolstered by a seabed survey finished in February 2026 across the licence, carried out by TDI Brooks International using the research vessel Gyre. Core samples from the seabed showed butane and pentane hydrocarbons.

A separate risking study issued in September 2025 suggested that a positive survey outcome could raise drilling success estimates on two main targets: the Colibri zone from one-in-five to one-in-three, and the Oriole zone from one-in-eight to one-in-five.

The Walton Morant block holds an estimated seven billion barrels of unrisked mean prospective resources. Gaffney Cline and Associates, in an independent review, put recoverable unrisked mean prospective resources at more than 2.4 billion barrels across five prospect zones. The licence remains valid until January 2028.

For the year to December 2025, United Oil posted an after-tax loss of US$1.25 million, an improvement on the US$2.4 million loss recorded in 2024. It ended the period with US$1.7 million in cash.