pet: "This is for both offshore and onshore. They have all of the license areas around IOC's PPL 237 and PPL238. It includes a few blocks inside our license areas i.e. our license area surrounds some of their blocks."
I'd say so.
Highlights from a Nasdaq article on Total/OSH.
....."Total's interest reinforces views by rival oil companies such as Chevron Corp. (CVX) that demand in Asia for cleaner- burning fuels will continue to grow as countries like China look to reduce a reliance on burning coal for power. Several big discoveries in Papua New Guinea (*edit: All by IOC) and offshore Australia have made the region one of the hottest energy-investment plays in the world.
.....However, (LNG) new projects in the region would have to compete (*edit: production costs rule!) against the likely emergence of competing supplies from North America and East Africa.......
.......Papua New Guinea, located immediately to Australia's north and Indonesia's east, has an estimated 22.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves (edit: IOC controls 50%-75% of the 22.6Ts) , according to U.K.-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie, or the equivalent of the U.S.'s natural gas consumption in a year.
That likely underestimates its true potential as Papua New Guinea has only been lightly explored for oil and gasup to now. According to Canada's Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM), only a few thousand kilometers of seismic data has been acquired throughout the country since its independence in 1975." (*edit: Have they ever heard of IOC's data room?).