Trinity E&P said today that the sale of a package of assets in Trinidad to Range Resources had been blocked by regulators.
Trinity announced plans to sell its interests in the Brighton Marine and the Point Ligoure licences for $4.55million in August.
The firm said regulators had been unable to gain “sufficient comfort on the transfer of ownership and operatorship”, and therefore have not approved the transaction.
The $4.55million deposit will be returned to Range Resources.
Trinity’s still plans to divest of the west coast assets and will revert to the other relevant parties that took part in the sale process.
Bruce Dingwall, executive chairman of Trinity, said: “We continue to focus on maximising shareholder value and plan to further grow production while maintaining financial discipline.
“As such, we aim to further increase profitability and returns as we maintain our development strategy.
“We look forward to commencing drilling in the next quarter and will update the market regarding the divestment of these non-core assets in due course.”
Mr Dingwall co-founded Venture Production, a North Sea focused independent oil and gas company, in 1997
Venture Production was eventually swallowed up by Centrica in a £1.2billion deal in 2009.
He founded Trinity in 2005 with the acquisition of Venture Production’s Trinidadian assets.