AGM Statement

RNS Number : 9566I

Trinity Exploration & Production

23 June 2017

 

Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR).

Trinity Exploration & Production plc

("Trinity" or "the Group" or "the Company")

AGM Statement

Trinity, the independent E&P company focused on Trinidad and Tobago will be holding its Annual General Meeting at 9.30am today at the offices of  Pinsent Masons LLP, Third Floor, Quay 2, 139 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh EH3 9QG.

At the meeting, Bruce Dingwall, Executive Chairman, will provide a brief portfolio and strategy overview in line with the corporate presentation that is available on the Company's website (www.trinityexploration.com) giving the following statement.

Following the difficulties of 2015 and 2016 when the Board and Management worked to preserve value for shareholders and stakeholders, whilst delivering the refinancing and restructuring needed to restore the Group's financial position, Trinity now has a clear strategic focus going forward, which is to grow our reserves and production to maximise the cash flow from our assets while achieving a market value that is more reflective of our underlying assets and business.

As discussed alongside our preliminary results in May, production had declined significantly from average levels of 3,600 barrels of oil per day ("bopd") in 2014 to current levels of approximately 2,500 bopd due to a lack of investment. Notwithstanding, it is important to emphasise that the underlying asset base remains intact and therefore growing production is a direct function of investment into these assets. This is in contrast to many oil and gas companies that are reliant on successful exploration, appraisal and or development or M&A activity.

The funding required to stabilise operations and recommence value extraction from the asset base was received in January of this year. Following receipt of funds, the primary focus during H1 has been to initiate essential maintenance and upgrades to our infrastructure and to sustain base production levels whilst undertaking parallel planning activities to grow production across the portfolio from a range of; workovers, swabbing, re-activations, re-completions ("RCPs") and new infill drilling. Specifically these activities have included:

Onshore:

·    The identification of over 200 resistive (not perforated) sands in the Company's portfolio to screen for RCP opportunities;

·    Subsequent detailed petrophysical analyses screening to high grade and risk the opportunity set;

·    The deployment of an additional rig dedicated to accelerating the  RCP programme;

·    The completion of 4 RCPs to date (which have averaged approximately 80 bopd, cumulative 4,700 bbls, since the start of May with ongoing optimisation).

·    The high grading of a further 22 RCPs into the RCP hopper;

·    The work-over of 35 onshore wells, of which 4 were re-activations, and continued generation of opportunities;

·    A substantive rolling work-over programme in-progress/identified to be undertaken during H2 with 2 dedicated rigs;

·     Identified wells for re-activation (wells that have been shut in for an extended period);

·     Swabbing commenced on two fields and is being rolled out across the onshore portfolio; and

·    The maturation of new infill onshore well locations that are currently going through internal review and the external approvals process.

We believe that these combined activities provide scope to grow production from current levels of approximately 2,500 bopd to an eventual target-rate of approximately 3,000 bopd within 12 months of completing the initial onshore infill well drilling programme.

Offshore:

·    Minor well interventions through wireline tubing scrapping were executed on three wells on the marine platforms at Brighton on the West coast;

·     The work-over of two wells on the Trintes field on the East coast;

·     Up to a further 10 work-overs in-progress/identified to be undertaken at Trintes during H2;

·    A dedicated work-over team has recently been deployed to progress work-over activities at Trintes;

·    The first reactivation to include the installation of a progressive cavity pump ("PCP") offshore has been completed;

·    The use of lower cost solutions to Electrical Submersible Pumps (such as PCP, Mechanical Pump Hydraulic Unit and Crank Rod Pump) for lower flow rate wells are being utilised on Trintes to expand the pool of economic wells for work-overs and re-activations;

·    Initiated an internal geological, geophysical and engineering review of the Trintes infill drilling programme and the Trintes-TGAL and Galeota Ridge development plan;

·     Well trajectory optimisation for the Trintes infill drilling programme has commenced; and

·   The Trintes drilling rig is to be demobilised to land for inspection, service and upgrade in preparation for future offshore drilling.

Trinity, alongside other Trinidadian operators by invitation, has recently been engaged in lobbying and face to face discussions on supplementary petroleum tax ("SPT") reforms with the International Monetary Fund and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries and the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

In summary, the last few months have been about strengthening the foundation of the Company by identifying and working on retaining asset integrity and maturing the pathways for value-creating production growth.

The significant reductions to both OPEX and G&A costs achieved so far, have enabled the Company to maintain and enhance cash margins despite a lower oil price environment.  To date, the Group has also put hedging in place (through the purchasing of put options) which covers over 35% of the Group's production should the WTI oil price fall below US$40.0/bbl over the next 12 months. These steps in conjunction with cash balances as at 31 May 2017 of US$12.4 million (unaudited) mean we are well placed to grow as a producing, cash flow positive business of scale and I look forward to providing a further update early in the second half of the financial year.

Investor Presentation Event

We will be attending and presenting at the Oil Capital Conference organised by Proactive Investors on 27 June at the Brewery (52 Chiswell St, EC1Y 4SD). A copy of the presentation, which is being made at 10.00am, will be made available on our website. There will be no new material information in the presentation. 

For more information and to register please visit the Proactive Investors webpage http://www.oilcapital.com/conferences

Competent Person's Statement

The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by Graham Stuart, the Company's Technical Advisor who has 34 years of relevant global experience in the oil industry.  Mr. Stuart holds a BSC (Hons) in Geology. Reserves and resources in this announcement are based on internal management estimates in accordance with SPE PRMS guidelines (Petroleum Resources Management System 2007 & Revisions).

Enquiries:

Trinity Exploration & Production	Tel: [phone]
Bruce Dingwall, Executive Chairman
Tracy Mackenzie, Head of Corporate Development
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated & Financial Adviser)	Tel: [phone]
Mark Brady
Miriam Greenwood
Sean Wyndham-Quin
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (Broker)	Tel: [phone]
David Porter
Sebastien Maurin
Craig Francis
Walbrook PR Limited	[e-mail] or Tel: [phone]
Nick Rome

About Trinity

Trinity is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused solely on Trinidad and Tobago.  Trinity operates producing and development assets both onshore and offshore, in the shallow water West and East Coasts of Trinidad. Trinity's portfolio includes current production, significant near-term production growth opportunities from low risk developments and multiple exploration prospects with the potential to deliver meaningful reserves/resources growth.  The Company operates all of its nine licences and, across all of the Group's assets, management's estimate of 2P reserves as at the end of 2016 was 21.3 mmbbls (excluding the Guapo-1 license which was disposed of in April 2016). Group 2C contingent resources are estimated to be 21.1 mmbbls. The Group's overall 2P plus 2C volumes are therefore 42.3 mmbbls.

Trinity is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker TRIN.

 

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