Rawson secures petroleum prospecting licence in Papua New Guinea

Rawson Resources has secured a petroleum prospecting licence (PPL) 549 in Papua New Guinea’s North New Guinea Aitape basin.

The company holds 100% interest in the licence, which has been awarded on a six year term and can be further extended for another six years.

The first well commitment in PPL 549 is due in 2020.

PPL 549 covers an area of 4,947km² in the North New Guinea Aitape Basin and is believed to have structural and stratigraphic play potential.

Under the first phase of the work programme, primary focus will be on validating reefal anomalies that were identified earlier, and the potential of clastic reservoirs in the licence.

Previous exploration efforts that have mapped anomalies from seismic data are good exploration targets and appear analogous to the major reefal carbonate reservoirs of the fields of the Salawati Basin in Irian Jaya.

The Salawati Basin is located 900km to the west of PPL 549 and has a similar oil type and potential source rock. It holds an estimated 475MMBoe of proven hydrocarbon reserves.

Structural traps also appear to exist along the southern margin of the Aitape Basin adjacent to oil seeps along the bounding fault zone.

Rawson Resources has two applications that are yet to be considered and are located in the Western Province close to the existing Stanley, Elevala, Ketu, Tingu and Ubuntu discoveries.

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Image: The location map of PPL 549 in Aitape Basin, Papua New Guinea. Photo: courtesy of Rawson Resources.