As regular readers will know I'm a big fan of ShareSoc and all of the amazing work that they do on behalf of individual shareholders. The website has recently been revamped and is now much more user-friendly. So even if you're not a member of the organisation I'd recommend checking out the site as it contains plenty of useful information for investors. Anyway ShareSoc also bring many interesting companies to the attention of private investors with their seminars and this month proved to be no exception:
Trinity Exploration
It's been a while since I've seen a small-cap O&G share so I was ready to hear what Bruce Dingwall, Executive Chairman, had to say. In a nutshell this is a company that owns a large number (~1086?) of onshore and offshore wells in Trinidad & Tobago and produces from around 130 of them. Apparently the hydrocarbon basin here is substantial, running from Venezuela, which is why Trinidad is the wealthiest Caribbean nature with plenty of O&G infrastructure in place. In charge of operations there's a high quality board, with plenty of relevant experience, who are aligned with shareholders (they own ~25% of shares or ~45% if you include friends and family). For example Bruce himself ran Venture Production which got taken out by Centrica in a hostile but profitable takeover.
In contrast Trinity Exploration has languished for the last five years as a consequence of the collapse in oil price combined with taking on debt at the wrong time. Things got so bad last year that its shares were suspended with some subsidiaries filing for bankruptcy protection shortly afterwards. Still the company is back on its feet now and profitable as a result of massive cost-cutting and rationalisation; the upshot being that they hope to become debt free this year from cash-flow and the $15m raised last year. So things are looking pretty positive with a well reactivation programme helping to bring output to >2600 bopd with 3000 bopd achievable in the near term.
However, as Bruce pointed out, work-overs aren't a long term solution and so Trinity Exploration has done some exploration in its off-shore blocks and is looking to drill wells along the Galeota Ridge. It seems that this is an under-explored geological feature with a lot of potential although the caveat is that additional…
