Stockwatch Today Interesting take Even further south, Paul Baay's Touchstone Exploration Inc. (TXP) added two cents to $1.11 on 293,600 shares, after arranging an asset swap in Trinidad. The deal involves no cash. Instead, Touchstone will trade some of its "non-core [assets with] limited scalability" for "highly prospective exploration and development acreage."
The non-core assets in question are Touchstone's Fyzabad, San Francique and Barrackpore blocks. The company has owned them for over a decade, and they are collectively producing a relatively stable if not very promotable 130 barrels a day. By contrast, Touchstone and its cheerleaders are starry-eyed over the earlier-stage Ortoire block, which is currently producing about 1,200 barrels a day and has much greater potential, according to president and CEO Mr. Baay. He made noises last month about Ortoire's ability to boost Touchstone's overall production to 15,000 barrels a day in 2023, a tenfold increase from 2022. That is its near-term potential; its long-term potential is apparently so staggering to him that he could not attempt to quantify it, beyond a vague reference to one exploration prospect that could make "everything that we've done [so far] look really small."
Mr. Baay used today's deal to add more juice to the Ortoire hype machine. In exchange for the above-mentioned non-core assets, Touchstone will take ownership of three blocks directly offsetting Ortoire, called Rio Claro, Balata East and Balata East Deep Horizons. They are only mildly productive -- about 35 barrels a day in total -- but span 28,000 acres, which will "significantly expand" the Ortoire-adjacent drilling prospects, marvelled Mr. Baay. The assets also come with an 18-kilometre pipeline that could help speed up regional infrastructure development. Mr. Baay let out a boisterous cheer about "further high-grad[ing] our portfolio" while adding "numerous drilling opportunities."
Investors seemed mildly intrigued. Many are still smarting from last month's dilutive equity financings for a total of $18-million, boosting Touchstone's share count to 233 million from 213 million. Mr. Baay has promised that Touchstone will use the money to "get back in the field" and resume drilling for the first time in over a year. He has not said when exactly the program will begin.