Hertz Energy Appoints New Directors

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 15, 2026) - Hertz Energy Inc. (CSE: HZ) (OTCQB: HZLIF) (FSE: A340) ("Hertz Energy" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Desmond Balakrishnan and Jean Lafleur to the Company's Board of Directors.

Desmond Balakrishnan is a lawyer practicing in the areas of Corporate Finance and Securities, Mergers and Acquisitions, Lending, Private Equity, Natural Resource, and Gaming and Entertainment for McMillan LLP, where he has been a partner since 2004. He acted as counsel to companies with respect to debt, equity financings, strategic acquisitions, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, public listings on the Canadian Securities Exchange, the TSX Venture Exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Balakrishnan has been lead counsel on over $5 billion in financing transactions and in mergers and acquisitions aggregating more than $10 billion. He also serves as a director and/or officer of several resource, finance and investment issuers.

Mr. Balakrishnan graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1994 and from the University of Alberta in 1997 with an LL.B (with distinction). Mr. Balakrishnan was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1998. Mr. Balakrishnan is a member of the Vancouver Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association and the International Masters of Gaming Law.

Jean Lafleur is a Professional Geologist (Québec) with 45 years of experience in Canada and internationally including USA, Mexico, Latin America, Ireland, Spain and Africa. Earlier in his career he worked with Newmont, Falconbridge, Dome Mines, and Placer Dome and has been a C-suite executive for a number of junior exploration companies. Jean has remained active as a technical, management, and financing consultant with junior explorers since the early 2000's through his own geological consultancy firm and throughout his career has led a number of teams in the discovery of precious and base metals, nickel, PGE's, uranium, and iron deposits. Jean's expertise includes mining company and project evaluations, audits, technical reporting, exploration program planning and execution, and research and development with a strong focus on Québec. Jean currently acts as a Senior Consultant, North America for Appian Capital Advisory LLP, a mining-focused private equity firm based in London, UK where through his extensive professional network he sources and presents potential mining transactions in North America to the Appian team for investment opportunities.