Papuan Basin

Drillsearch has a 5% working interest in an exploration permit within the Papuan Basin. The Papuan Basin is the main area for exploration and production in Papua New Guinea. Drillsearch’s interest lies in the offshore portion of the basin in the Gulf of Papua. The northern limit of the basin is onshore and is bounded by igneous and metamorphic basement highs, the southern margin of the basin is not well defined and it is contiguous with the Carpentaria Basin toward the southwest.

The basin developed in an extensional passive margin setting during the Mid-Late Triassic. It then entered a compressional foreland basin setting during the Neogene. This foreland basin setting influences trap style and migration pathways within the basin. Target reservoirs within the basin include Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous sandstones, Miocene reefs and Plio-Pleistocene turbidite deposits. Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary aged shales are thought to provide the source rock for hydrocarbons within the basin.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), oil has been produced from the onshore Papuan Basin since the early 1990s. This basin also hosts substantial proven gas accumulations, and PNG may shortly become a regional gas producer with the PNG-Queensland gas pipeline project.