Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd (TSX-V:RECO, OTCQX:RECAF, FRA:0XD) CEO Brian Reinsborough talked with Proactive about the company’s oversubscribed $36 million financing, which sets the stage for its 2026 operations across three key African jurisdictions.
Reinsborough noted that the offering, originally targeted at $20 million, saw significant institutional interest, leading to an expansion and over-allocation.
Proactive: All right. Welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Brian Reinsborough. He is the CEO of Reconnaissance Energy Africa, or Recon Africa of course. And Brian, it's great to see you again. How are you?
Brian Reinsborough: Wonderful. Thank you for having me once again.
Well, big news out from the company that you've closed off your financing—just over $36 million, oversubscribed. Obviously a huge success. Brian, let's start there. Tell me a little bit about the financing and what you're hearing from people.
Yeah, it was a very successful financing for this year. We went out with a $20 million offering to begin with, and there was very, very high demand in the market. So we ended up increasing our offering and even that was over-allocated. From my standpoint, it was a very effective and important fundraise. But also, I look at not just the overall numbers, but the content—we're getting some new institutional names into Recon, writing sizable checks. That's the balance we want going forward. So I'm super happy about this. Great beginning. And the company is funded for our operations for 2026.
Brian, did you find that a lot of people are coming in because of the quality of the operations and the number of jurisdictions you’re in? It's not just one play—you’ve got a number going on.
That's exactly right. We made a big pivot last year to diversify our asset base. We've always been in Namibia—it’s a big component. But we expanded into Angola with the MOU, and also late last year, we pivoted into Gabon, going offshore. We like that asset from both exploration and development standpoints. There's a small field there we like a lot. So now we’re expanding into a diversified portfolio. It allows me to allocate capital across the opportunity spectrum, which is what we want. Investors are liking that—they don’t want a single-point failure company. They like a portfolio. They're seeing the quality in Namibia with the Kavango discovery and in Gabon with the Loba discovery. I think it's a combination of all that—investors are taking notice.
Let’s talk about how you’ll use this capital. I know you've got a big work plan for 2026. Why don't we start in Namibia—what’s going to happen there this year?
Absolutely. It’s an exciting time for Namibia with our Kavango interest. We're proceeding to a production test as we speak. We're guiding that we’ll be on location and in operation by the end of Q1. That involves drilling some plugs, setting a five-inch production liner to total depth, and starting the testing program. This is Namibia’s first production test—it’s a big deal. We want to see deliverability of hydrocarbons. Doing a production test in a cased hole lets us isolate intervals and see what the reservoirs can deliver.
Everything’s on schedule. We’ve ordered the production casing and it’s shipping to Namibia in February. We’re also going through the bidding process for testing and surface equipment. During the test, we’ll separate fluids—gas will be flared, and liquids stored in tanks. We may test up to 7 or 8 intervals, so it could be a two-month operation.
And Angola—is that more in the geological work phase?
Yeah. Angola is our next phase of exploration. We’re active in Namibia with the Kavango discovery, but Angola is next. We have an MOU, and teams will be sampling oil seeps for geochemical signatures. Then we’ll start planning a seismic program. These fold belts, when you find them, they often span countries. We know it continues into Angola, but we need a disciplined exploration program—prove the petroleum system, then define geological features through seismic.
And let’s quickly get to Gabon—there’s going to be some activity there as well?
Yes, absolutely. That’s why we did this raise—to avoid doing things sequentially. You need to move in parallel. In Gabon, we’ve retrieved geological studies from the government and we’re in the final stages of getting seismic tapes. We’ll start a high-end seismic reprocessing project on the Ngulu block in February. It’s a six-month project with deliverables throughout. We want to better image the Loba discovery and crystallize our exploration inventory. The goal is to take older seismic and apply state-of-the-art processing. After that, we hope to release a resource report and plan for a well by this time next year on the Ngulu project.
Quotes have been lightly edited for style and clarity