Trinidad and Tobago, 11km off the coast of Venezuela, sits on one of the biggest, and one of the most historic (the first well was drilled for oil in 1857) oilfields in the world.
In 2010, the Calgary-based company Touchstone Exploration, founded by CEO Paul Baay, arrived on the island, identifying a region in Trinidad with large oil reserves that hadn’t yet been recovered. – pools up to 80 and 90 years old.
It took the company several years to work out the best methods to reinvigorate Trinidad’s wells, and later they drilled new wells and standardised operations. The new wells yielded up to four times more barrels per day and generated faster, stronger returns.
Its growth over this decade has been dramatic. It is now the second largest onshore oil company in Trinidad. The number of its drilling locations has gone from five to 208. In 2010, the company produced 135 bbsl/d (barrels per day). By the close of 2018, it had passed a significant milestone of producing 2,000 bbsl/d.