Kapul Petroleum Ltd was awarded exploration licence PPL 610, located in the Papuan Fold Belt, Papuan Basin, on 31 July 2018. The licence application was lodged on 17 March 2017 by Kapul. The licence covers an area of 255 sq km over part of the expired PPL 260 licence held by Oil Search. Oil Search was subsequently awarded PPL 545 in August 2017. PPL 610 has been awarded for a period of 6 years and will expire on 30 July 2024.  PPL 260 was awarded on 14 March 2005 and covered a total of 6,581 sq km to the north of the PNG LNG fields Juha, Hides and Angore (and recent discovery Muruk). In June 2012 the licence was reduced and split into two blocks. The smaller block area to the west, covering approximately 170 sq km, is now covered by Kapulâs application. PPL 260 expired in March 2016 with a topfile application in place as APPL 545, also held by Oil Search on behalf of joint venture partners JX Nippon and Exxon Mobil. Oil Searchâs application does not include the PPL 610 area, which runs in trend with the PNG LNG gas fields.  Kapul joins only two other operators which lay outside of the PNG LNG joint venture with licences directly adjoining the northern Toro Sandstone play region. Moonbi Energy was awarded PPL 470 in 2013, and TWhite was awarded PPL 538 in 2015.  Kapul Petroleum has been awarded 100% interest in the Petroleum Exploration Licence PPL 610. Exploration licences in the region have been awarded, on average, eight months after applications have been submitted. In the case of PPL 610, Kapul was awarded the licence around 16 months after the application was submitted.
Kapul Petroleum Ltd was awarded exploration licence PPL 610, located in the Papuan Fold Belt, Papuan Basin,