Touchstone Exploration Share Discussion Threads

[2prsimo] 18/6/2018 07:36

One of the cheapest oilers on the market at present. I'll keep saying it!

[brasso3] 18/6/2018 07:31

Surely that should see us out of the teens.

[grannyboy] 18/6/2018 07:26

Yes and by the time it's due to start to be repaid, should be well on the way to 3000+bopd,..at least!

[zengas] 18/6/2018 07:24

Well there's $5m available that was locked up plus they won't be paying any of the quarterly payments in 2019 which were to start January 2019 of $810k/qtr = total of $8.2m freed up. Commencing Jan 2020 instead with a 1 year extension on the facility.

[brasso3] 18/6/2018 07:21

Nice RNS. That frees up an extra $5M

[sleveen] 15/6/2018 17:08

ross...a pretty fair assessment.

I suspect the debt route might not be appropriate given the current loan, which would leave the equity route possible convertibles ala TRIN?

[sleveen] 14/6/2018 16:07

Agreed, good debate is what a BB is all about.

For my money, I'm somewhere between the 2 protagonists.

That said I do recall the unexpected nature (as posted on the previous BB) of the last placing (Dec 2017) to fund the 2018 drilling campaign, promoted by PB.

The thinking was that TXP would generate plenty of cash to fund the 2018 drilling...

[zengas] 14/6/2018 14:41

Maybe you should refrain from describing shareholders "as apologists for their BoDs" when it comes to swapping personal comments. I'm certainly not an apologist but I am a shareholder!

If you're not selling up ros, what exactly 'concerns' you to labour the point ?

If you're concerned, then sell up and wait and see what transpires. Otherwise I fail to see your constant fixation of it being a "concern". As I see it, they are in a position of strength not weakness as to what path they choose.

By the way Parex reserves were -
32 mmboe P2 in 2013 with 128m shares in issue.
162 mmboe P2 in 2017 with 155m shares in issue.

There was little dilution in creating those 5 fold increase in reserves with a 20% increase in shares issued by comparison. They didn't get to 40,000 boepd without creating/adding reserves from 2013.

In the last 4 years price has risen 6 fold to cdn $3.8b (£2.2 billion) and you have to take into account the effect of 2014/15 markets.

[mr. t] 14/6/2018 14:25

captainfatcat - I agree and appreciate the constructive debate.

[captainfatcat] 14/6/2018 14:00

Always a positive thing in my book to have different view points and a bit of constructive debate on the bb.

[captainfatcat] 14/6/2018 13:05

If the first well comes in on the Ortoire block and produces at anything like its neighbours in early 2019 (just six months away) then self funding is not going to be an issue. If it doesn't come in then drilling plans may be paused as the seismic is revaluated.

May be shooting a bit of modern 3d seismic over the Ortorie targets wouldn't be amiss.

Pleased at any rate and feel its a real positive move by the company that Ortorie potential is now being talked about openly at last.

[zengas] 14/6/2018 12:28

if shareholders don't challenge them ?

and what ? You'll make a difference ?

[zengas] 14/6/2018 11:22

I wouldn't get overly hung up on funding ross.

The most important growth factor is that they are even talking of such an ambitious well programme which would be transformational.

If 2,000 bopd is self funding, then qtr on qtr you should be getting a meaningful lift in production/cash flow meaning you can increase the well drilling accordingly.

If 10 wells in 2018 add a net 800 bopd, then 20 next year could possibly add 1500+.

Mid year potentially they could be at 2500 bopd+ and ramp up drilling accordingly that way.

They could well increase their debt level by $5m+ and they could at some point raise $5m+ and enough to fund 10 wells alone. I say this because with this years drilling I expect an increase in the reserves and with the production rise gives them greater flexibility as they target 5-10k bopd.

[mount teide] 14/6/2018 11:04

In his analysis of historic drilling costs on the development blocks yesterday Zengas suggested that;

'If the wells are an average of no more than 5,000 ft we're looking at under $1m well or $20m worth of drilling.

1800 - 2,000 bopd at a net back of $25/b = $16.4m - $18.2m/yr.

No reason why they can't lift production by another 1,000 bopd next yr and $27m net back yr given the planned increased well programme at current oil price range.'


With costs continuing to drop(Paul Baay suggested they were only 50% of the way through the potential that exists to further reduce costs) and netback's rising with oil over $70 - most, if not all of the proposed 2019 exploration and development drilling programme could well turn out to be self funding.

However, as 'hiddendepths' suggested - a modest placing at a decent premium to the current share-price to underpin the 2019 drilling programme would likely be well supported by most shareholders - considering the huge exploration upside.

[mount teide] 14/6/2018 10:36

Ortoire - Exploration Upside - some further comments by Paul Baay yesterday in response to questions

"If you look at the fields adjacent to the Ortoire block - the daily production rates are pretty dramatic - thousands of barrels of oil and 30-40 million cubic metres of gas. So when you look at that compared to the current size and production of Touchstone today you can see why we are very excited about the Ortoire drilling programme - (likely to be a 5 well continuous programme)"

"To keep things in perspective i don't want people to leave the AGM thinking we will be putting all the eggs in one basket - what actually is going to happen is that 20%-25% of the capital programme will go to exploration, with the other 75%-80% going to drilling 20-25 wells a year on our development blocks - to give you some idea of the balance."

"We are not putting the company at risk by drilling Ortoire we are giving it a controlled step change".

What is the 5 year plan?

"The 2,000 bopd mark is the starting point of our 5 year plan - once we get over that hurdle ...things start to change dramatically - we start to generate enough cash flow to self fund the drilling programme. Our objective - there is lots of potential to get to 5,000 - 10,000 bopd onshore in Trinidad. If you look historically at the O&G assets onshore in Trinidad - there are billions of barrels of oil - its just a matter of getting the right technology and the right capital structure to put it in place - and i think we are getting closer and closer to that"

[crooky1967] 14/6/2018 10:00

If they did need to do a placing then I do not believe it will need to happen before next year. Hopefully by then the share price has risen to where it deserves to be and that would be 40-50p based on 2400bopd ish being produced. By then I would imagine that most shareholders would not be too bothered if a 10m placing was done to raise circ £4.0 - £5m