Stockwatch Energy FYI yesterday Further afield, Paul Baay's Touchstone Exploration Inc. (TXP) lost 12 cents to $1.21 on 505,800 shares, even as it trumpeted a "very exciting" milestone in Trinidad. Touchstone has already been an oil producer in Trinidad for years; now it is officially a gas producer too. The company has started production from its Coho project at a net rate of about 8.4 million cubic feet of gas a day (the equivalent of about 1,400 barrels of oil equivalent a day). This is the first onshore gas development to come on-line in Trinidad in two decades.
To hear CEO Mr. Baay talk, it may be one of the most exciting bits of news in all his years of energy promotion, spanning three decades. (Investors may remember his name from Remington Energy in the 1990s and True Energy and Vero Energy in the 2000s, before he established Touchstone in 2010.) "This is very exciting for the company ... [and] will provide a strong foundation for continuous improvement," he declared. He also took the opportunity to remind shareholders of a much larger gas project that Touchstone is working on, Cascadura. This will have a designated production capacity of 200 million cubic feet a day, though it is still in the planning and permitting stage.
This stage can last far longer in Trinidad than investors might like. Touchstone was originally hoping to bring little Coho on production in early 2020, or roughly 2-1/2 years ago. Yet as long as shareholders invested at least three years ago, they have generally had their patience rewarded. After spending years stagnating at 20 cents, the stock soared throughout 2020 and reached a high of $3.06 in 2021, before pulling back to today's close of $1.21.