Trinity Regulatory News (TRIN)

Trinity Exploration & Production plc

("Trinity" or "the Group" or "the Company")

Trinidad and Tobago 2018 Budget Highlights

Trinity, the independent E&P company focused on Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to note proposed reforms encouraging investment in the energy sector included in yesterday's Budget Statement in Trinidad, which could have a positive impact on future trading for the Company.

The Statement specifically addresses the Energy Tax Regime:

We have started a review of the energy tax regime in order to simplify and rationalise the terms of both Production licences and Production Sharing contracts. The main objectives of this reform are to encourage investment in the energy sector and raise the Government's revenue-take

Critical areas being addressed are:

· Making the Supplemental Petroleum Tax responsive not to price but to underlying profitability;

· Extending the Supplemental Petroleum Tax to gas, which is now the country's main petroleum product;

· Reconciling and simplifying the fiscal regimes applicable to the exploration and production and production sharing systems; and

· Standardising and uniformly applying appropriate royalty rates to all crude oil, condensate and gas.

Negotiations between the energy companies and the Government are well advanced and we expect to be in a position to present the new oil and gas fiscal regime before the end of this year.*

Bruce A. I. Dingwall CBE, Executive Chairman of Trinity, commented:

"This could prove to be an extremely important change for the Company in terms of bottom line economics and Company valuation. The Government is aligned with Trinity in seeking to increase oil production and once the terms of the changes to SPT are clear we will then be in a position to quantify what the effect on the Company will be. 

"On the face of it this announcement looks like good news and we continue to work hard on building on the strong first half and look forward to updating the market further in due course."

* extract taken from full Budget Statement available here http://www.finance.gov.tt/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/BUDGET-STATEMENT-2018-BOOKLET-faw.pdf

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About Trinity (www.trinityexploration.com)

Trinity is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused solely on Trinidad and Tobago. Trinity operates producing and development assets both onshore and offshore, in the shallow water West and East Coasts of Trinidad. Trinity's portfolio includes current production, significant near-term production growth opportunities from low risk developments and multiple exploration prospects with the potential to deliver meaningful reserves/resources growth. The Company operates all of its nine licences and, across all of the Group's assets, management's estimate of 2P reserves as at the end of 2016 was 21.3 mmbbls. Group 2C contingent resources are estimated to be 21.1 mmbbls. The Group's overall 2P plus 2C volumes are therefore 42.3 mmbbls.

Trinity is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker TRIN.