Papua New Guinea seeks ways to attract oil explorers

The Papua New Guinea Department of Petroleum & Energy is seeking measures to attract oil exploration within the country. One measure being considered is a reduction in taxation rates from 50 % to 30 %.
In the early 1990s oil production was about 140,000 bpd of oil. In 2001 it averaged less than 60,000 bpd.

Only two exploration oil wells were drilled in 2001, but four could be drilled in 2002 and between six and 10 in 2003. Papua New Guinea's petroleum reserves are 132 mm barrels of oil and 15 tcf of gas.
The nation's main energy aspiration is the development of the $ 3.5 bn natural gas pipeline to transmit its natural gas to Queensland.