Tourmaline Oil Pauses Major Infrastructure Project

Tourmaline Oil has implemented a one-year pause between the initial and second phases of its infrastructure development in northeastern British Columbia. This strategic decision, announced by President and CEO Mike Rose, aims to enable Tourmaline and its investors to fully capture the operational and free-cash-flow advantages from phase one before advancing to phase two.

The company is continuing with the planning stages for the second phase but anticipates that significant capital commitments and orders for long-lead equipment will not be required until mid-2027. Tourmaline revised its exploration and production spending plans, now projecting C$2.55 billion for 2027 and C$2.3 billion for 2028. Mr. Rose indicated that the company might reconsider the pause if natural gas prices remain between C$4 and C$5 for a sustained three-year period.

In the second quarter, Tourmaline's average production was 594,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a figure slightly below its guidance. This lower output was a deliberate choice, attributed to increased natural gas storage injections, deferred activities due to low natural gas prices, and price-driven production shut-ins. Storage injections at Dimsdale, Alberta; Dawn, Ontario; and Wild Goose, California, averaged 8,900 BOE per day during the quarter, with expectations to withdraw most of these volumes in the fourth quarter of 2026.