Petro Matad (LON:MATD) unveiled ambitious plans for its Mongolian licences after completing work to assess their potential.

Carried out under the guidance Ridvan Karpuz, who has been elevated to the main board, the results of this early evaluation could be the curtain-raiser to an ambitious drilling programme.

Petro Matad’s Blocks IV and V have been assessed as bearing similarities to the Junggar, Turpan and Erlian basins of China. A number of leads have been mapped and prospective resources have been assessed for these targets.

The work also re-evaluated the prospectivity of Block XX. Karpuz’s team did so using existing seismic data and previous exploration results, which point to a number of unexplored basins in the southern part of Block XX.

Finally, mapping of the company’s seismic on Block XX and public domain data in Block XIX shows the structural trends that produced the Tolson Uul oil fields in Block XIX extend into the north-western part of Petro Matad’s Block XX.

The company said the next step is to conduct regional and detailed seismic surveys in 2013.

This will help confirm the leads as drillable prospects and to identify other independent targets “that undoubtedly exist within these large basin areas”.

Two-year and five-year work programmes have been established. Petro Matad said it could drill four to six exploration wells in 2014 with a further two or three wells in each of the following three years. Any success would lead to additional appraisal and development drilling.

Separately, Clyde Evans has been appointed the company’s finance director.