Petro Matad (MATD) on Thursday stressed that the three production sharing contract licences it holds in Mongolia represent “a significant frontier exploration opportunity” as it provided investors with an operational update.

In blocks IV and V, the prolific Junggar, Turpan and Erlian basins have been identified as structural and depositional analogues. In-house basin modelling has been carried out to document source rock maturation and hydrocarbon generation. This work has resulted in an additional petroleum system being postulated for blocks IV and V to complement those already established.

The prospectivity of Block XX has been re-evaluated based on reinterpretation of existing seismic data and previous exploration results. Mapping of Petro Matad seismic data in Block XX and public domain data in Block XIX showed the structural trends that comprise the Tolson Uul oil fields in Block XIX extending into the north-western part of Block XX.

Petro Matad explained that the next steps were to conduct regional and detailed seismic in 2013 to confirm these leads as drillable prospects and to identify other independent leads that it said undoubtedly exist within these large basin areas. Short-term (two year) and long-term (five year) work programmes have been established for this purpose, with the hope of drilling four to six exploration wells in 2014, with a further two or three wells in each of the following three years.