Touchstone Exploration Inc.  said it has slated plan for the Company submission of a notice to residents in the community that the Coho gas facility and pipeline will commence pre-commissioning and commissioning operations. Pursuant to the Coho Certification of Environmental Clearance, residential notification is required to be made a minimum of five business days prior to the commencement of operations. The Coho area is located in the Ortoire block, where Touchstone has an 80 percent operating working interest and Heritage Petroleum Company Limited holds the remaining 20 percent working interest.

The pre-commissioning of the gas facility and pipeline consists of testing all electronics, alarms, and operating systems in the facility, testing of the flare and emergency shutdown systems, as well as purging air from the system using inert nitrogen gas. Subsequent to these operations, system commissioning operations will commence, which entails the introduction of natural gas from the Coho-1 well into the facility and pipeline in a step rate manner, officially bringing the system onstream to the Central block natural gas facility.

Coho-1 will commence production following completion of the commissioning and pipeline handover process, with the expectation that production will increase over time to 10 MMcf/d (1,667 boe/d) gross, 8 MMcf/d (1,333 boe/d) net. Touchstone will provide further information once production is optimized through the system.

Paul Baay, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The completion of the Coho facility and pipeline will be a significant milestone for Touchstone, as it will represent our first natural gas production and is expected to double our current production on a boe basis. Throughout this process we have encountered challenges that have provided us valuable knowledge to streamline the construction of the Cascadura facility. During the pre-commissioning and commissioning process, we will need to balance the system with the well, pipeline and Central block facility. We will keep all stakeholders informed of our progress, and I would personally like to thank our shareholders for their continued patience as we proceed to full commercial production.”