An Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion (Pub­lic Pe­tro­le­um Rights) Li­cence for the Rio Claro Block sit­u­at­ed in the Wards of Charu­ma, Co­cal, Or­toire and Guayagua­yare has been grant­ed to NGC E&P In­vest­ments Lim­it­ed and Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed (a whol­ly owned sub­sidiary of Touch­stone Ex­plo­ration Inc.) by the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries.

In a state­ment, the Min­istry con­firmed that the of­fi­cial sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place to­day No­vem­ber 4, 2024, at its of­fices at the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex, in Port-of-Spain.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry’s re­lease, the agree­ment to ex­e­cute this li­cence rep­re­sents the cul­mi­na­tion of di­rect ne­go­ti­a­tions among the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, NGC E&P In­vest­ments Lim­it­ed and Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed.

“As we en­gage in on­go­ing ex­plo­ration of on­shore, shal­low, and deep-wa­ter re­gions, it is im­per­a­tive that we sus­tain our part­ner­ships with our up­stream op­er­a­tors to ad­vance the de­vel­op­ment of our hy­dro­car­bon re­sources and fos­ter a com­pet­i­tive fis­cal land­scape that en­cour­ages in­vest­ment. The E&P Li­cence be­ing signed to­day re­flects our ac­knowl­edg­ment of the ne­ces­si­ty to main­tain com­pet­i­tive­ness to draw in in­vest­ment,” said Min­is­ter Young at the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

The Min­istry notes that the Rio Claro Block is an on­shore block neigh­bour­ing the Cas­cadu­ra Gas De­vel­op­ment in the Or­toire Block which is al­so op­er­at­ed by Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed and pro­ject­ed to yield sig­nif­i­cant gas pro­duc­tion.

In June 2024, Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed and NGC E&P In­vest­ments Lim­it­ed was grant­ed the Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion Li­cences in re­spect of the Charu­ma and Cipero Blocks aris­ing out of the 2022 On­shore and Nearshore Com­pet­i­tive Bid Round.

The En­er­gy Min­istry notes that the Rio Claro Block is bound­ed to the north by the Charu­ma Block and to the south by the Or­toire Block.

“The key pro­vi­sions of the Rio Claro li­cence are the fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions to the State and the work pro­gramme to be un­der­tak­en by the li­censee,” the Min­istry’s re­lease ex­plains. “The fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions in­clude bonus­es, min­i­mum pay­ments and an­nu­al sur­face rent. Pro­vi­sions have al­so been made for train­ing and re­search and de­vel­op­ment (R&D) con­tri­bu­tions along with schol­ar­ships for na­tion­als. The li­censee has com­mit­ted to a min­i­mum ex­plo­ration work pro­gramme which in­cludes the drilling of three (3) ex­plo­ration wells and the re­pro­cess­ing of seis­mic da­ta.”

Present at to­day’s sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny were Stu­art R. Young SC MP, Act­ing Prime Min­is­ter, Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter; Ms. Pene­lope Brad­shaw-Niles, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary, Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries; Dr. Joseph Khan, Chair­man, Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny; Mr. Howard Dot­tin, Di­rec­tor, Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny; Mr. Paul Baay, Di­rec­tor, Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed; and Mr. Joseph Pan­cham, Di­rec­tor, Primera Oil and Gas Lim­it­ed.