TRINIDAD

Touchstone Exploration announces  private placement

19 Feb 2019
Touchstone Exploration intends to complete a private placement directed towards United Kingdom institutional investors. The Company expects to raise gross proceeds of £3.8 million (approx. C$6.5 million) by way of a placing of 31,666,667 new common shares of no par value at a price of 12 pence (approx. C$0.205) per New Common Share. The Placement Price represents a 4 percent discount to 12.5 pence, which was the closing price of the Company’s common shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on February 18, 2019.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to finance the drilling of an exploration well in the Corosan west region of its Ortoire exploration property (80% working interest). Touchstone anticipates spudding the well in the second quarter of 2019 targeting a total depth of 9,000 feet. For details of the nature and quantities of contingent and prospective gas resources targeted, see the estimates prepared by the Company’s independent reserve and resource evaluators summarised in the Company’s January 17, 2019 announcement.

In response to the crude oil price volatility experienced in the fourth quarter of 2018, Touchstone has held back from recommencing a development drilling program. This remains under active review, and the Company expects to use cash flows from operations to finance future development drilling based on the prevailing commodity market. The Company delivered average crude oil sales volumes of 1,994 barrels per day in January 2019.

Shore Capital and GMP FirstEnergy acted as joint brokers in connection with the Private Placement.

Paul Baay, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

‘The Ortoire block has been the primary focus of our exploration team over the past three years, and the recent independent prospect evaluation prepared by our independent reserve and resource evaluators has supported our belief in its potential. Today’s funding allows us to make a firm commitment for the drilling of the first exploration well on the property. Success at this well could deliver a new core area and may enable us to de-risk multiple follow-up locations on the property. The opportunity at the Ortoire block represents a potential step change for Touchstone in terms of reserves, production and net asset value, and I look forward to updating the market post drilling.’

Original article link

Source: Touchstone Exploration

 

BP starts gas production from Angelin project

26 Feb 2019
Third major project to begin production for BP globally in 2019, builds on significant Trinidad business, adds to advantaged gas portfolio

BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) announced first gas production from its Angelin development. The project was delivered on time and under budget.

The Angelin development, originally discovered by the El Diablo well in 1995, includes a new platform and four wells. It is located 60 kms off the south-east coast of Trinidad in a water-depth of approx. 65 metres.

The new platform, BPTT’s 15th installation offshore Trinidad & Tobago, has a production capacity of 600 million standard cubic feet a day (mmscfd). Gas flows from the platform to the existing Serrette hub via a new 21-kilometre pipeline.

‘This safe and successful start-up, less than two years after sanction, is a credit to our BP teams and contractors. Angelin is BP’s 22nd new upstream project to come online in just over three years and reflects our commitment to do what said we would, safely and competitively.’

BPTT regional president Claire Fitzpatrick added:

‘BPTT is proud to deliver our promise of first gas from Angelin in the first quarter of 2019. Angelin is the next step in fulfilling our long-term development plan in Trinidad and will play an important role in enabling us to deliver our production commitments, which could potentially include up to $8 billion of investment in several more major projects over the next 10 years.’

Angelin is BPTT’s first major project development supported by the application of ocean bottom cable (OBC) seismic acquisition with advanced processing, allowing enhanced imaging of its reservoirs in the Columbus basin offshore Trinidad.

BP started up two new gas projects in Trinidad – Juniper and Trinidad Onshore Compression – in 2017 and recently announced the sanction of another two developments – Cassia Compression and Matapal – expected to come onstream in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Angelin is BP’s third major upstream project start-up in 2019, following Constellation in the US Gulf of Mexico and the second stage of the West Nile Delta development offshore Egypt.

Source: BP

BREAKING NEWS

 Trump excludes Trinidad from landmark event

White House press sec­re­tary Sarah Sanders announced that five Caribbean lead­ers  from Ja­maica, Ba­hamas,  St Lu­cia, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Hait­i.are meeting  Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump on is­sues, in­clud­ing Venezuela in an ef­fort to strength­en co­op­er­a­tion on se­cu­ri­ty and trade is­sues.  He  will use the meet­ing  at his re­sort in Palm Beach, Flori­da. to thank the lead­ers for their sup­port for peace and democ­ra­cy in Venezuela.

Trump’s in­vi­ta­tion was is­sued to lead­ers of four of the five Caribbean states which in Jan­u­ary sup­port­ed an Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) res­o­lu­tion re­fus­ing to recog­nise the le­git­i­ma­cy of Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro’s sec­ond term: Ja­maica, the Ba­hamas, Haiti and St Lu­cia.

Sanders said Trump will dis­cuss po­ten­tial op­por­tu­ni­ties for en­er­gy in­vest­ment with the lead­ers, adding the Unit­ed States re­mains “a good friend to the Caribbean and seeks to build on a proud lega­cy as the re­gion’s part­ner of choice.”

As word of Trump’s meet­ing was an­nounced by the White House, US Am­bas­sador Joseph Mon­del­lo held dis­cus­sions with Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar at her Port-of-Spain of­fice.

Guyana al­so sup­port­ed the OAS vote. Do­mini­ca, St Vin­cent/Grenadines and Suri­name vot­ed against, while St Kitts, T&T, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos and Be­lize ab­stained.

 St Lu­cia—part of the Li­ma group of Cana­da and Latin states—in­di­cat­ed in Feb­ru­ary it didn’t sup­port Maduro and called for fresh elec­tions.

Trump’s cau­cus with the lead­ers comes two months af­ter Venezuela’s po­lit­i­cal cri­sis arose when Na­tion­al As­sem­bly leader Juan Guai­do de­clared him­self in­ter­im pres­i­dent af­ter what he dubbed “in­valid elec­tions.” The US and oth­er coun­tries have sup­port­ed Guai­do against em­bat­tled Pres­i­dent Maduro. While Maduro’s held on, US sanc­tions against his ad­min­is­tra­tion in­ten­si­fied Tues­day. That day, Trump re­it­er­at­ed that “all op­tions are on the ta­ble” re­gard­ing Venezuela, in­clud­ing mil­i­tary in­ter­ven­tion. He said the “tough­est sanc­tions” are ahead.

Bar­ba­dos, St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago are not part of the Li­ma group. 

BACKGROUND

The latest diplomatic blunder by a populist party risks damage to excellent relations with the world’s largest  economy, recorded in historic events.

In 1940, Chagauramas peninsula was leased for a Naval and Air Base to protect the harbour of the Gulf of Paria and regional trade routes during WW2. In a strategic position, it was commissioned in 1941. By 1942, the military area became a naval in service base outfitted with a section base; net,  supply and fuel depots; a hospital; a degaussing range, ship restore facilities and a radio station. It achieved full operation in 1943 and became the base for the .early warning radar site and a missile tracking site on the U.S. Air Force Eastern Test Range.

Its  strategic importance grew in 1966 with construction of one of the eight Omega navigation systems in the world. OMEGA was the first truly global-range radio navigation system, operated by the USA in cooperation with Trinidad and 5 other nations. OMEGA navigation enabled ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving very low frequency (VLF) radio signals. This was replacedby the Global Positioning Satellite system in 1997.

Like The Waller Army Airfield it offered employment to local citizens and trained local youth in mechanics and other skills.The last Americans left Chaguaramas in 1977. Waller Army Airfield was activated on 1 September 1941 with the assignment of the 92d Service Group. with the mission to establish a flying facility within the United States Army

Fort Read post. The unit consisted of the group’s Headquarters, and the 92d Air Base and 309th Material Squadrons. The group was assigned to the Caribbean Air Force . The airfield had 2 runways as the premier US combat  airbase. When congestion became acute combat aircraft moved to Edinburgh (Carlsen) Airfield. It was redesignated Waller Air Force Base in March 1948. Military Air Transport Service  (MATS) used it as a transit facility under the 24th Composite Wing based at Puerto Rico. MATS 6th Weather Squadron (Regional) provided meteorological reports for aviation and tropical storm and hurricane reporting. Waller AFB closed in 1949 and operations shifted to the Panama Canal Zone. The airfield is the site of the Tamana InTech Park, a science and technology park with amenities for  industries and the multimillion-dollar UTT campus complex, housing and other projects.

Texaco Trinidad also came to a sad end. Trinidad and Tobago with their own oil wells, did not produce enough petroleum to efficiently run the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery and the refinery that the government operated. Trinidad agreed to pay Texaco $189.2 million – $98 million in cash and the rest in petroleum products over 10 months. Texaco kept its most productive offshore oil fields and two undeveloped offshore tracts.  The recent meltdown confirmed that state intervention is doomed by refusal to privatise the 5 bureaucracies that replaced Petrotrin. The industry continues to rely on private foreign investment by major companies. The region  is awash with shale gas which can feed Point Lisas petrochemical plants while exporting indigenous gas as LNG in a booming market.

The 7-island republic can no longer rest on its laurels, claiming to stand tall and proud after abandoning principles to condone oppression.