Company to Ship First Commercially Marketed Oil Sales
Since Resumption of Operations in February
Rig Scheduled for First Exploratory Well on Utah Asset
Bakersfield, CA, April 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Trio Petroleum Corp (NYSE American: “TPET”, “Trio” or the “Company”), a California-based oil and gas company, today provided updates on its petroleum assets in Monterey County, California, and Uintah County, Utah.
The Company this week will make its first sale and shipment of oil produced at the McCool Ranch Field in Monterey County, California. The Company will ship approximately 2,100 barrels of oil, which were produced primarily from the HH-1 well that was brought back online in late February of 2024. Net of 16.67% royalties and oil trucking costs, the 80% net revenues to TPET from this sale are expected to be approximately $105,000.
The Company is also announcing the commencement of drilling activities on the Asphalt Ridge project in Uintah County, UT. A rig is scheduled to be on site this Sunday, and to drill and complete the Company’s first well on this asset in the next two weeks. Drilling results are expected to be readily available shortly after the well is drilled to a total estimated depth of 1,200 feet. The project targets a highly promising heavy-oil tar sand field that is expected to be densely developed at scale, with as low as 2.5 acre spacing for future wells. Through existing working interests and option agreements, the Company has the ability to take up to a 20% working interest in this project.
“These are positive next milestones for our Company,” commented Michael Peterson, CEO of Trio Petroleum Corp. “It is very encouraging to see these next steps happen in the transition from the exploration and de-risking of these promising oil and gas assets into potentially scalable cash-flowing resources. We look forward to providing further updates as we drill our first well on the Asphalt Ridge Asset and restart production on additional wells and selling of oil produced from both the McCool Ranch and Presidents Fields in the months ahead.”
Presidents Field
On March 26, 2024, the Company brought the HV-3A well in the Presidents Field back into production at a previously-reported oil production rate of 30 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). This well was drilled and completed in 2018 as an exploratory well, and in 2018-2019 it was briefly production-tested, during which peak production was 154 BOPD and average production was 33 BOPD.
This well is producing from 125 feet of perforations in the Yellow Zone, which is also commonly referred to as the Yellow Chert, and from an additional 125 feet of perforations in the overlying Upper Monterey Clay. The Monterey Formation is one of California’s major oil and gas producing zones.
Operations at HV-3A do not require steam due to the favorable viscosity of the mid-gravity oil. TPET believes that production at HV-3A can be significantly increased over current and previous levels, for example by:
- adding up to 650 feet of additional perforations in the currently-producing oil zone
- opening deeper behind-pipe oil zones, portions of which are already perforated
- acidizing the well for borehole cleanup
- other methods and operations under consideration
TPET will produce and monitor the HV-3A well as currently completed and when appropriate will take steps to increase production. There are potentially up to 50 development-well locations at Presidents on 40 acre well spacing, as indicated in the Company’s reserve report as filed with the SEC.
McCool Ranch Field
On February 22, 2024, the Company brought the HH-1 well at McCool Ranch back into production at a previously-reported oil production rate of 47 BOPD. The HH-1, 35X and 58X wells at McCool are now all producing with the HH-1, which started production late February, accounting for the majority of the approximate 2,100 barrels of oil that are being sold and shipped this week. As it did with the HH-1 well, The Company is currently taking steps to optimize the oil production from the 35X and 58X wells, including possibly employing cyclic steam and is also taking steps to bring the additional shut-in oil wells in this field back online.
Summary
In summary, the Company currently has four actively producing oil wells in California, three at McCool Ranch Field and one at Presidents Field and the Company is now selling and shipping oil from its California assets. The Company will be drilling its first well at the Asphalt Ridge Asset in Utah next week.
Additional information is provided on TPET’s website at the following link: https://trio-petroleum.com
About Trio Petroleum Corp
Trio Petroleum Corp is an oil and gas exploration and development company headquartered in Bakersfield, California, with operations in Monterey County, California, and Uintah County, Utah. In Monterey County, Trio owns 85.75% working interest in 9,245 acres at the Presidents and Humpback oilfields in the South Salinas Project, and 21.92% working interest in 800 acres in the McCool Ranch Field. In Uintah County, Trio owns 2.25% working interest in 960 acres and options to acquire up to 20% working interest in the 960 acres, in an adjacent 1,920 acres, and in the greater 30,000 acres of the Asphalt Ridge Project.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release of Trio Petroleum Corp (“Trio”) and its representatives and partners that are not based on historical fact are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Acts”). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words “estimates,” “believes,” “hopes,” “expects,” “intends,” “on-track”, “plans,” “anticipates,” or “may,” and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Acts and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Acts. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. While management has based any forward-looking statements contained herein on its current expectations, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of the Trio’s control, that could cause actual results to materially and adversely differ from such statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, but are not necessarily limited to, those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Trio’s S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies are of such documents are available on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. Trio undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.
Investor Relations Contact:
Redwood Empire Financial Communications
Michael Bayes
(404) 809 4172
michael@redwoodefc.com