On 23 May 2019 Sino Industrial Energy Ltd was awarded exploration licence PPL 647, located in the offshore Papuan Basin. Sino has been awarded the licence for an initial period of six years with the expiry date set as 22 May 2025.   This is the third application and award by Sino alongside PPL 645 and PPL 646 which were also awarded on the same date. The company applied for the licence areas to the Department of Petroleum and Energy (DPE) on 25 July 2018. Given successful completion of the allocated work programme, Sino may be eligible to renew the licence for a further 5 years, with an associated 50% area reduction.    PPL 647 covers an area of 760 sq km in a licenced area formerly held by Aspenglow, under PPL 555. The licence, along with PPL 556 and 557, were cancelled on 15 September 2017 by Fabian Pok, the ex-Minister of Petroleum preceding a public cancellation notice to Aspenglow liquidators in early-2018 for non-compliance of licence terms. As the cancellations are subject to ongoing legal proceedings, the Oil & Gas Act stipulates that new applications cannot be processed. Therefore, the award of PPL 647 is somewhat confusing.  In November 2017 Asian Oil & Gas (PNG) Ltd submitted three new exploration applications over the Aspenglow blocks. These applications are yet to be considered for award but remain valid, pending completion of the legal proceedings relating to the Aspenglow blocks.  Â PPL 647 potentially lies on trend with the Pandora gas fields and outlined Miocene carbonate prospects: Persephone, Artemis and Hecte.  Â Sino Industrial Energy Ltd was awarded 100% interest in exploration licence PPL 647 on 23 May 2019.
Papua New Guinea, PPL 646