New Guinea Energy retains 50% stake in highly prospective PNG gas exploration licence

New Guinea Energy (ASX: NGE) has decided to retain its 50% interest in the PPL 269 licence in Papua New Guinea, enabling it to further its exploration and drilling programs in conjunction with Talisman Niugini Pty Ltd.

The highly prospective licences PPL 268 and PPL 269 are part of New Guinea Energy's gas aggregation strategy in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

The licences are believed to hold a Mean Prospective Resource of more than 2 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas in PPL 268 and more than 7 TCF of gas in PPL 269.

The company is planning seismic programs focussing on the Champion Lead (PPL 269) and the 268-1 Lead (PPL 268) in the first quarter of 2012 to mature targets for drilling.

Interestingly, potential strategic partners have expressed their interest in the licence and New Guinea Energy is currently progressing negotiations that should add value to both the licence and the company.

The company is also continuing to develop its exploration and drilling programs on its four other wholly owned licences as well as actively seeking joint venture partners to assist in these.

New Guinea Energy has one of the last available highly prospective, onshore, nonaligned acreage positions in South East Asia.

The company has six onshore licences encompassing 53,000 square kilometres (13 million net acres) and to date there has been 1 billion bbls of oil and 15 Tcf of gas discovered in adjacent licences.

The Siphon-1 Well, within PPL 269, has recently been drilled encountering elevated mud gas readings across several interbedded sandstones in the Ieru Formation.

The well has a NGE Mean Prospective Resource estimate of 234 BCF gas / 7 MMBC (Petroleum-initially-in-place).

The participants in PPL 269 are: Talisman Niugini Pty Limited (Operator) 50% (a wholly owned subsidiary of Talisman Energy Inc) and Kirkland Limited 50% (a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Guinea Energy).

Originally published at : http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/21045/new-guinea-energy-retains-50-stake-in-highly-prospective-png-gas-exploration-licence-21045.html