Curtis Williams, T&T Guardian

PORT SPAIN
EnergiesNet.com 10 17 2022

Canadian Outfit Touchstone Energy could bid on as many as three of the eleven blocks offered by the Ministry of Energy in is onshore/nearshore 2022 competitive bid round.

Paul Baay, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer told the Business Guardian (BG) on Monday that his company was excited by the onland prospects and will definitely bid.

“With the success we got at Coho and Cascadura and at Royston, there is no question we’ve got lots of interest from our side in some of those blocks. We are for sure. The parcels came out a little different from what we thought they would be, that’s one thing that has changed a little bit, but we will be definitely looking at quite frankly two or three of them for sure.”Touchstone’s CEO told the BG.

He was also full of praise for the process and the quality of the seismic made available to the companies.

“It’s probably the best package we have ever seen in Trinidad. Like the data that’s available, ease of access, it’s the best package we have ever seen so it really helps to fine-tune the bid for sure.” Baay explained.

This is good news for the Ministry of Energy and the country as it could mean further interest in blocks from companies looking for oil and gas onshore. If the bid round is successful it would mean more activity onland including more seismic work, drilling and hopefully production.

Touchstone’s interest and the success of the onshore bid round could be built around Touchstone’s own success in the Cascadura and Royston discoveries in which the company has said it made major gas and oil discoveries.

Only on Monday Touchstone started producing from its Coho discovery.

It announced that the Coho facility delivered first gas, representing the first onshore natural gas project to come onstream in Trinidad and Tobago in over twenty years.

The Coho area is located in the Ortoire block, where Touchstone has an 80 percent operating working interest and state-owned Heritage Petroleum Company Limited holds the remaining 20 percent working interest.

On September 26, 2022, the Coho facility was approved by the Certified Verification Agent with the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries authorizing facility commissioning. On September 27, 2022, Touchstone commenced commissioning and achieved commercial deliveries on October 10, 2022, with a field estimated sustained gross production rate of approximately 10.5 million cubic feet per day.

Touchstone said it will continue to monitor the Coho-1 well in an effort to optimize production. In conjunction with initial production, the company said it has also sold the 2.7-kilometre, 6-inch gathering line tying in its Coho facility to the Baraka natural gas facility to The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (“NGC”).

Natural gas production from the Coho facility will be sold to NGC pursuant to a natural gas sales agreement executed in December 2020.

Baay said:”This is very exciting for the Company, as Coho production represents the first stage of diversifying our product mix in Trinidad. The Coho facility is capable of 24 million cubic feet of gross natural gas per day,giving us the ability to potentially add incremental production volumes through a combination of additional drilling and well optimization. I would also like to recognize the collective contributions of our team in making this project a success. Being the first onshore gas project in over twenty years, we have learnt from the

process, which we expect will provide a strong foundation for continuous improvement as we proceed with our larger Cascadura project.”

On July 11th the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries launched its onshore/nearshore 2022 competitive bid round.

The blocks included Aripero, Buenos Ayres, Charuma, Cipero, Cory D, Cory F, Guayaguayare, St Mary’s, South West Peninsula Onshore, South West Peninsula Offshore and Tulsa.

Kimberlee London, Senior Geologist at the Ministry gave details of the blocks at the Seventh Conference of the Geological Society of T&T 2022 held at the Hyatt Regency and said bids will be open for six months, with the deadline for submissions being January 2023.

The blocks are expected to be awarded in April 2023, three months after the close of the bid round.

In detailing a summary of the process London explained that prospective bidders must pay a bid fee of US$30,000 or the equivalent $TT prior to the close of bids.

She said Clause Five was amended to allow payment in local currency as concerns were raised by some onshore operations.

This fee entitles the bidder to receive the data package and the right to bid on any or all of the blocks.

Each bid contains proposals in technical and commercial evaluation of the block, minimum work programme, minimum expenditure obligation and signature bonus.

She said bids should be submitted under confidential cover to the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries by 12 noon on the deadline date.

All bidders are required to deliver an oral presentation in support of their technical and commercial evaluations to the relevant ministry personnel.

Successful bidders shall execute an Exploration and Production License with the state within 30 days of notification of their successful bid.

The decision proceed with E&P license was made because of legacy licenses and the challenge of having a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) on land London explained.

Touchstone’s interest would be a welcome change from what has happened recently with the government’s 2022 deep water bid round attracting little interest as well as its shallow water bid round which failed.

guardian.co.tt 10 12 2022