Canadian weed obsession gives London boost as other firms look for investment

A focus on cannabis in Toronto made London more interesting for Canadian oil and gas firm Touchstone Exploration its chief executive said today as he presented his first set of full-year results since listing here in 2017.

“They have been completely focused on cannabis and the legalisation of cannabis in the past three years, there’s been no capital there” for others, Paul Baay said.

“I would love to be half-joking about that, but it’s absolutely true. CA$50bn (£28bn) has been raised in the cannabis sector out of Canada, and it’s just left no money left for mining or for oil and gas.”

Touchstone reached production of 1,700 barrels per day at its Trinidadian fields last year, a 25 per cent increase from 2017.

A $19m investment programme made the micro-cap explorer the most active onshore upstream company in Trinidad last year, the firm said, drilling 11 successful wells and completing nine.

Meanwhile, its petroleum sales increased 53 per cent on the year before, generating $49m, the company said yesterday.

“Our goal is to be the largest onshore producer in Trinidad,” Baay said. “There are some other little companies … and we think there’s probably a little bit of consolidation to do.”