GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Touchstone’s share price was CAD$0.20 in January 2019; by January 2020 it had doubled to $0.40. But by January 2021, despite extenuating circumstances related to the covid19 pandemic, it was approximately CAD$2.50, over 12 times what it was worth two years prior. What caused this and why it is important to TT?

In 2011, CL Financial sold its oil producing subsidiary, the Primera Group, to Canada’s Touchstone Exploration Inc for approximately US$50 million. At the time, Primera had 16 oil and gas properties across southern Trinidad.

During 2020, Touchstone produced approximately 1,400 barrels of crude per day from nine onshore properties (in Fyzabad, Barrackpore, Palo Seco, San Francique, among others).

But what has really made Touchstone a phenomenon in the last few years has been their exploration success within the Ortoire Block. This was one of three onshore blocks signed by the Ministry of Energy in 2014, during the last successful bid round. Touchstone operates the block with 80 per cent interest, while Heritage took over Petrotrin’s 20 per cent. Ortoire is surrounded by several producing oil and gas fields (Baraka, Baraka East, Carapal Ridge, Catshill, Navette and Balata East). The block, at 184 sq km, represents less than five per cent of Trinidad’s land acreage, roughly covering a portion of south-east Trinidad from Tableland to Ortoire, Mayaro, with its southern portion ending in the Guayaguayare Forest.

Before going further about Touchstone, it is worth discussing a few facts that are relevant to this story.

Firstly, Trinidad has been commercially producing oil onshore for over 100 years. The land acreage has been well explored and developed with over 10,000 wells drilled. Many geologists had given up on major new onshore exploration finds and attention had gone towards the shallow offshore and more recently, the ultradeep, where BHP has made several gas discoveries. There were always a few geoscientists however, that remained faithful that the mature onshore basin could still provide a few surprises.

Secondly, almost all the hydrocarbon producing fields onshore Trinidad have been oil producing. The one notable exception is the Central Block field, operated by BG and now, Shell. In 2000, when the Carapal Ridge gas field was found, it was the largest onshore discovery in decades. Most peculiarly, the field was gas. It was long thought that additional gas fields might be present nearby. Unfortunately, most of the acreage surrounding the Central Block had been underexplored, even though older wells indicated the presence of hydrocarbons.

Lastly, we must make mention of the domestic gas situation and our downstream sector. The consumers of gas by percentage for 2021 are: petrochemical plants (40 per cent), power generation (nine per cent), Atlantic LNG (48 per cent) and other small manufacturers (three per cent). The Pt Lisas Industrial Estate is of course home to some of the largest ammonia and methanol plants in the world. G

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