Touchstone finds hydrocarbon in Ortoire block in Trinidad

Touchstone Exploration Inc has announced its completion of drilling on the Royston-1 exploration well in Ortoire, south Trinidad, and a discovery of substantial hydrocarbon.

A statement from the Calgary, Alberta-based company on Saturday said mud-logging and wireline logs showed hydrocarbon accumulations in the Lower Cruse, Karamat and Herrera sections.

“An aggregate 393 gross feet of hydrocarbon pay was identified in two unique thrust sheets in the Herrera sands from 9,700 feet to total depth, with wireline logs indicating that the well was in hydrocarbon pay at total depth.

“The well is currently being cased and prepared for production testing of the Herrera formation,” it said.

Touchstone said Royston-1 was drilled to a total depth of 10,700 feet and was the deepest exploration well drilled by the company to date.

The well located in the Ortoire block was spud on August 12 and is shared by Touchstone, which holds 80 per cent operating working interest and 100 per cent responsibility for drilling. Heritage Petroleum Co Ltd holds the remaining 20 per cent.

Touchstone CEO and president Paul Baay said the results were better than expected and anticipated it was the largest geological structure identified on the block in the Herrera formation.

“The Royston-1 well was the fifth and final well of the first phase of our exploration drilling programme on the Ortoire block, with logging data indicating better than expected results.

“The amount of identified hydrocarbon pay further verifies the opportunity in the block for our future phase two exploration programme. Prior to drilling, we targeted 200 feet of gross sand pay, with results almost doubling our expectations.”

Chief operating officer James Shipka said the project provided further insights into the geological deposition in the Ortoire area.

“While we believe the discovery to be natural gas, we will wait for testing results to confirm. The testing results will also provide us with deliverability capability as the porosity measured at Royston-1 is lower than Cascadura but similar to data seen at other offsetting producing wells.

"The noteworthy hydrocarbon accumulations in the lower Karamat sands give us additional insights into the geological deposition and hydrocarbon migration in the Ortoire area and are encouraging for our future second exploration phase.”

Production testing is scheduled to start in late October and full results will be provided when available, he added.

In a statement on Saturday, Heritage said it was pleased with the collaboration between both companies from prospect identification to upgrades that facilitated drilling activity on the block.

Heritage CEO Arlene Chow said, “The Royston-1 well results are very encouraging, especially for development of the Herrera plays, which I believe has significant potential both in the Ortoire block and elsewhere on Heritage’s acreage.

“I also commend the drilling teams for their safety performance and thank the teams at Touchstone, the Energy Chamber and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries who went the extra mile to ensure the availability of the covid19 vaccine for the teams working closely together in the Ortoire block.”

Heritage said it also anxiously awaited first gas production within the coming months at the Coho and Cascadura wells in the Ortoire block.