The 12 leads generally consist of three play types: large uplifted horst blocks, moderate sized tilted faults blocks and smaller inverted rollover structures on the margins of the likely source kitchen for the permit.

The reinterpretation and review was part of the company's plans to develop leads for an upcoming seismic program in the third quarter of 2011.

NGE said the remapping also indicated a large source kitchen of several hundred square kilometres where source rocks are buried up to 1000m deeper than the zones intersected by the Mata-1 well.

The Mata-1 well intersected several intervals of good potential source rocks in the Jurassic section but geochemical analysis established that the source rocks were several hundred metres above the top of the oil window where temperatures were insufficient to generate oil.

The company said it has high-graded four leads, which are mapped on the flanks of the potential oil kitchen where the chance of successful charge is maximised, to be the focus of the upcoming seismic program.

Disclosure: Aspermont, publisher of PetroleumNews.net, holds shares in New Guinea Energy.