The belief in the energy sector, its opportunities and challenges is orthogonal to the economic value of equity in the current company. Normally, "principal" refers to people who have singularly or jointly a controlling interest of an enterprise. If that's the case, the decision to fold is their's. Leaving to get a day job is a tell.
Good luck.
Sounds like you're burnt out and need a change. I wouldn't worry about the equity so much, as you've said, it has near 0 value.
You didn't state where you were incorporated, what your costs of incorporating, etc. were.
I've kept a Delaware C corp going for a few years because the cost of shutting down and starting again is more than the cost of the taxes, and I can use the structure for another business in the future. I guess it also depends on how complicated the corp structure you put together are.
Aside from the cost of maintaining the corp, if you're comfortable with keeping it, why dissolve?