"The PNG government has just gone through a review and revoked a lot of dormant licences, and we were fortunate enough to be up there at the right time," he said.

The company has applied for a small number of highly prospective licences around past oil and gas discoveries, and is keen to add in more permits.

It is focused on the low-lying areas in PNG, and will steer away from the Highlands, where operating can be a trial.

Until the permits are awarded, Richardson did not want to talk about specific areas, but he said recent drilling by Kina Petroleum had helped changed the cost structure of exploration, and with new pipeline infrastructure being considered for the nation, there could be more options for any gas discoveries.

Warning

Last year PNG petroleum minister Nixon Duban issued a warning to explorers in the country that the government will crack down on non-compliance, with a bond fee to be introduced to try to ensure licensees complied with promised work programs.

The new minister said the government will refuse applicants with unrealistic work programs, and will terminate licences which do not demonstrate "genuine commitment".

Almost two dozen of its 100 outstanding licenses have now been stripped from companies that are either insolvent or unable to meet their work commitments.

A review found that about half of the license holders were in breach of conditions, farming out part of the agreement to other companies without permission, or having gone into bankruptcy

Some 30 licences have been given time to clean up their act.

Richardson said the company has been encouraged by the fact that exploration in PNG has remained buoyant despite current low oil prices.

He said the company was making a cost effective entry in to the country, with no dilution associated with farm-ins.

Richardson said the company believes it can operate using its existing capital, and has no immediate plans for a capital raising.

Experience

"The key to operating in PNG, and I have worked there with Oil Search for five years and a group of private companies over the past four years, is experience, and we have the support of a very experienced advisor," he said.

"He is still working through a number of commercial arrangements, so he does not want to be named at this stage, but he brings a wealth of experience, but he has operational and executive level experience, so we will have that experience in the group between himself and me."

Richardson, who joined Rawson in 2013, took over as chairman in July with Simon Bird and former CEO Scott Brownlaw stepping down.

He brings 15 years' experience as a geophysicist, having held a variety of senior technical and management roles at Oil Search, which included leading the unconventional exploration within PNG when the company drilled a number of ultimately unsuccessful CSG wells, and as its Tunisian exploration manager where the PNG-focused Oil Search operated the Tajerouine PSC, which was recently allowed to lapse following the dry Semda-1 well.

Otway Basin

Rawson has undergone a change of focus in recent years, shifting its focus from the Northern Territory and Queensland to the Otway Basin in South Australia where it now has 100% of PEL 154 and PEL 155.

The company's permits are in South Australia, so they are not directly affected by the Victorian government's ban on drilling, but it does make it that much harder for the company to drill within its legacy assets.

The company has three near drill-ready prospects at Benara, Benara East and Nangwarry, and there is unconventional potential in the Penola, Portland and St Clair troughs, south of the Katnook area fields.

The permits are suspended, with wells not expected before 2018 or 2019. Last year the company spent $2 million on the 62.5% of Otway Energy that it did not own and tried to purchase the small Killanoola oil field from Beach Energy without success.

Rawson is also looking forward to seeing production from its 10% share of the Beach operated Udacha discovery in the Cooper Basin.