Area Drilling

Sept. 18, 2006

Austrailia

Two Denver independents applied for a fifth petroleum exploration permit in the Beetaloo basin in the Northern Territory (OGJ, June 27, 1994, p. 60).

MAB Resources LLC and its subsidiary Sweetpea Petroleum Pty. Ltd. applied for the 956,000-acre permit on behalf of PetroHunter Energy Corp. and Sweetpea.

Through Sweetpea, PetroHunter owns a 50% undivided working interest in four permits totaling 7 million acres. Exploration identified by the company’s geological and geophysical mapping extends into the newly applied area.

Drilling is planned in the second and third quarters of 2007. PetroHunter has recorded 250 km of 700 km of seismic surveys planned in the area.

Kazakhstan

Romania’s state Petrom told shareholders it is evaluating the size and commerciality of a gas-condensate discovery on the Dzhusaly exploration license in the South Turgai basin.

The South Rovnaya-1 exploration well went to TD 2,000 m, and first test rates were 7 MMcfd and 440 b/d from an undisclosed formation.

Papua New Guinea

Energy Investments Ltd., Perth, secured an option to drill two wells in PPL 248 in the Ramu basin of northern Papua New Guinea.

SriGAS Energy Group Asia Ltd., which holds the license, will be carried for two 9,000-ft exploration wells on the Banam anticline. The two companies are discussing farmouts with international parties. EIL has until Nov. 26 to exercise the option.

EIL said the 1.5 million acre block contains as much as 12,000 m of Mio-Pliocene sediments, and the anticline is covered with hundreds of small gas seeps that analyze 98% methane and 2% ethane. If gas discoveries are made on the block, they could support an LNG export project through a deepwater port at Astrolabe Bay near Madang in populous Madang Province.