Santos Ltd was announced as the preferred tender for block PLR2016/17-1A, located in the Bowen-Surat Basin, on 6 April 2018.Â  Santos is operating the permit and will hold interest with its GLNG partners and APLNG interest holders.Â  The permit will be awarded as an Authority to Prospect (ATP) licence, once native title and other regulatory negotiations have been completed.  The area lies adjacent to Santosâ Arcadia coalbed methane (CBM) acreage and Santos reported that any development from the asset would be low cost as it could utilise the existing infrastructure.  There are three wells located within the block area â Arcadia 1, 3 and 7, two of which encountered gas shows.  The PLR2016/17-1A block, also referred to as PLR-2016/17-1-1, was offered in the 2016/17 Queensland State Acreage Release between 11 November 2016 and 20 April 2017.Â  The block is in the Comet Ridge, Bowen-Surat Basin, around 40 km south of Injune. The area is prospective for coalbed methane (CBM). PLR2016/17-1A was open for competitive tender and required a cash-bidding component.  PLR2016/17-1A, which covers an area of 87 sq km, was preliminarily awarded on 6 April 2018.Â  Participants in the licence are Santos Ltd (22.85% + Operator), APLNG Ltd, a joint venture of Origin Energy, ConocoPhillips and Sinopec, (23.85%), Petronas (20.94%), Total SA (20.94%) and KOGAS (11.42%).
Santos Ltd was announced as the preferred tender for block PLR2016/17-1A, located in the Bowen-Surat Basin,Santos is operating the permit and will hold interest with its GLNG partners and APLNG interest holders.  The permit will be awarded as an Authority to Prospect (ATP) licence, once native title and other regulatory negotiations have been completed. 