Strike Energy (ASX:STX) has a much smaller loss for the 2025-26 financial year, but the improvement says more about the absence of big write-downs than about stronger trading. In its full-year results released on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, the Perth Basin gas company posted a net loss after tax of $27.2 million, compared with $157.3 million a year earlier.

The main reason for the narrower loss is visible in the Impairment line. Strike booked impairment expense of $2.7 million in FY26, compared with $117.7 million in FY25, when the prior year included significant non-cash write-downs. Without a repeat of those charges, the Bottom Line improved sharply even though sales and operating Earnings went backwards.

The key numbers

FY26 results release, sales Revenue fell to $62.8 million from $72.7 million, a decline of about 14 per cent. Underlying EBITDA dropped to $17.6 million from $41.6 million.

Operating cash flow fell to $6.4 million from $42.6 million. Cash at 30 June 2026 stood at $46.3 million, up from $41.1 million a year earlier.

A weaker second half

Comparing the full-year figures with the half-year report shows how the year unfolded. For the six months to December 2025, the half-year financial report showed gas and condensate sales revenue of $36.0 million, underlying EBITDA of $14.0 million and a net loss after tax of $12.3 million.

On simple subtraction, that implies second-half sales revenue of about $26.8 million, underlying EBITDA of only about $3.6 million and a second-half loss of roughly $14.9 million. The second half was therefore noticeably softer than the first, although the full-year release does not provide a detailed half-by-half breakdown.

The half-year report also noted a final 2027-28 reserve capacity price of $360,700 per megawatt, which Strike said would provide about $30.7 million of firm capacity revenue in the South Erregulla plant's second year of operations.

What drives Strike's business

Strike is an onshore Natural Gas producer and developer with exploration and development Assets across Western Australia's Perth Basin, covering about 3,000 square kilometres of acreage an August company update.

Its producing asset is the Walyering gas field, which continued to sell gas and condensate throughout FY26. In its August company update, Strike said Walyering's proved plus probable sales gas reserves stood at 16.4 petajoules after 5.7 petajoules were produced in FY26. The company also confirmed a discovery at Walyering West.

The second pillar is the South Erregulla peaking power plant, an 85-megawatt gas-fired facility. The results release says commercial operations are targeted for the fourth quarter of calendar 2026, while the August company update gave a practical completion target of 31 October 2026.

The third, and largest, is West Erregulla. Strike said proved plus Probable Reserves there rose about 20 per cent to 251 petajoules. Hancock Energy's Belisama processing Facility has been selected as the preferred processing solution, with 43.5 terajoules a day of net capacity.

The West Erregulla funding step