UK-Trinidadian oil & gas firms’ merger progressing further with another set of criteria out of the way

UK’s Trinity Exploration and Production, which has a portfolio of onshore and offshore oil assets located solely in Trinidad and Tobago, has fulfilled two more conditions for its proposed merger with Trinidad-headquartered Lease Operators.

On August 20, the duo disclosed that another pair of requirements outlined in the conditions and terms of the acquisition had been met after the state-owned Heritage Petroleum Company provided a written consent to the acquisition without exercising any pre-emptive rights under the joint operating agreements (JOAs). The proposed acquisition is set to be effected through a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement.

This comes on the heels of last week’s confirmation by Trinidad’s Minister of Energy and Energy Industries that his consent is not required for the merger to proceed. The remaining conditions include the approvals by the Trinidad and Tobago Fair Trading Commission and Trinity shareholders at the court and general meetings, the court’s sanction of the scheme at a hearing, as well as the satisfaction or waiver of several other requirements.

While Trinity was on the cusp of being acquired by Canada’s Touchstone Exploration in June, Lease Operators swooped in with what the UK player called “a material improvement for Trinity Shareholders.” The latter was ultimately accepted in a seemingly surprising move, prompting the would-be partners to start working on their pre-merger to-do list.