Trinity’s sale of West Coast assets falls through

Trinity’s sale of West Coast assets offshore Trinidad & Tobago to Range did not go as planned due to lack of regulatory approvals. 

On August 11, 2017, Trinity Exploration & Production announced that it had entered into a binding sale and purchase agreement (SPA) to sell its interests in the Brighton Marine and the Point Ligoure – Guapo Bay – Brighton Marine Exploration and Production Licenses and related fixed assets (the West Coast Assets) to a subsidiary of Range Resources for a cash consideration of $4.55 million.

This transaction was subject to various conditions including regulatory approvals to assign operatorship of the West Coast Assets to Range. However, the regulators were unable to gain sufficient comfort on the transfer of ownership and operatorship, and therefore have not approved the assignment, Trinity informed on Thursday.

Without regulatory approvals the sale of the West Coast Assets to Range will not complete, and the deposit of $4.55 million, currently held in escrow, is expected to be released to Range under the terms of the SPA and related escrow agreement.

The company stated that it is still its aim to divest of these assets and to that end the company will now revert to the other relevant parties that took part in the sale process. In the interim the West Coast Assets continue to be profitable and are performing as expected having averaged 264 bopd (gross) or 217 bopd (net) over the third quarter of 2017.

At end 3Q 2017, Trinity had cash balances of $12.3 million and a daily production rate of 2,754 bopd in October 2017.  The drilling program remains on course to start in 1Q 2018, which will help grow production to a 3,000 bopd run rate.

Bruce Dingwall, CBE, Executive Chairman of Trinity, commented: “We continue to focus on maximizing shareholder value and plan to further grow production while maintaining financial discipline. As such, we aim to further increase profitability and returns as we maintain our development strategy. We look forward to commencing drilling in the next quarter and will update the market regarding the divestment of these non-core assets in due course.”