Touchstone Exploration Inc. has announced that significant net sand has been found at its Carapal Ridge-3 (CR-3) development well in Trinidad and Tobago, with completion and tie-in targeted for early 2026.
Development drilling in Trinidad and Tobago’s Central Block had resumed in December 2025 for the first time since 2006, with the CR-3 development restarting activity in the onshore natural gas block after a 19-year gap.
Touchstone restarts Central Block drilling after 19 year pause | OILNOW
On Monday, January 3, the company reported that the well encountered approximately 1,082 feet of net sand, including roughly 1,000 feet of net Herrera sand.
“CR-3 is the first well drilled into the Carapal Ridge pool in the past 17 years and encountered approximately 1,082 feet of net sand, including approximately 1,000 feet of net Herrera sand”.
Additionally, it was noted that “open-hole wireline logging, mud logging, and drilling data collectively indicate the presence of hydrocarbon-bearing sands throughout the Herrera interval” and “the well encountered a thick pay zone across multiple Herrera horizons, both above and below a shale marker”.
Meanwhile, completion work is currently underway, and the well is expected to be connected to the Central block natural gas processing facility in the first quarter of 2026.
According to Touchstone, the results “support the potential for up to three additional Herrera development wells on the Central block”, adding that “CR-3 also established a second, uphole, gas-charged play in the Karamat formation, which is being evaluated as a stand-alone prospect for potential drilling”.
Touchstone currently produces about 21 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day (mmscf/d) from the block. Since acquiring it, the company reviewed remaining resources and outlined plans to drill four development wells. Carapal Ridge-3 is the first in that campaign. Production is expected to start in February 2026.
If all four wells deliver as planned, output from Central Block is forecast to rise above 50 mmscf/d. Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI) said it worked with Touchstone to start drilling three weeks earlier than scheduled, in line with its effort to accelerate upstream activity.
Touchstone, which holds a 65 percent operating interest in the well, said the project came in about 25 percent over budget, stating that “the extra cost and time were mainly due to work needed to control natural gas flows from the Karamat sands, which have not previously been produced on the Central block”.
