Touchstone Exploration (LON:TXP) Chief Executive Officer Paul Baay caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the test results at their COHO well, what’s next on the exploration block and production forecasts going forward.
Q1: Paul, you’ve just announced test results at your COHO well in Trinidad and Tobago, what can you tell us about the results?
A1: So, it was a gas well that we drilled just over 2 months ago, finally got around to testing it, and it was really the first major gas test on the island in about 15 years so a little bit of logistics to get everything is place.
We ended up testing it on a 36-hour test, the original plan was we thought we’d probably get somewhere between 5 and 10 million cubic feet a day. We must admit we were a little bit surprised when we opened it up, we got about 17.5 million cubic feet a day, it actually peaked at almost 20 million a day. What we then had to do was choke it back for the extended test so we choked it back and it averaged just over 11 million a day for the extended flow test for 24 hours.
So, to say the least, it was very positive for Touchstone Exploration and far exceeded, I think, our expectations or what we had been telling anybody out in the market what we were expecting.
Q2: This is obviously just one well on the exploration block, what’s next?
A2: So, the exploration block, actually we’ve got four wells lined up, this was the first of the flow well programme.
We’ve actually already spudded the second well and we’re drilling it to, total depth today of 4,700 feet with a target of 8,100 feet so about halfway down that well and we should see results on it in the next couple of weeks.
The difference between the first well to the second well is the second well is actually targeting an oil zone in same geological strap as the first well but it’s actually an oil target. The third well is also an oil target and then the fourth well, which we look to drill next year, will be a very large gas target, something that’s four or five times bigger than what we’ve seen at COHO so far.
Q3: So, given these volumes, what can we expect in terms of production forecasts from Touchstone Exploration?
A3: So, as far as what we’ve done now, we’ll leave the well shut in and it will fill back up pressure and based on that pressure, we’ll know two things. We’ll know what we think the production rate will be and what the size of the tank is.
I think what we didn’t portray very well in our release was the fact that this well is likely to come onto production at that 12 million a day range. If you take a look at that, it basically means we’re going to double production from our existing production base when it comes on production at the end of the first half of next year.
