The discovery was made at the Cobra 1A well, which is operated by Oil Search Ltd., it said in a statement. A subsidiary of Japan Energy, the nation’s sixth-biggest oil refiner, has a stake in Murray Petroleum Co Ltd, a joint venture of Japanese firms and institutions, a company spokeswoman said. Murray has a 26.497% stake in the project.

Cobra 1A is located 13km (8 miles) east of the SE Gobe oilfield and 7km east of the Bilip oil discovery. Cue PNG Oil Co, which has a 10.947% stake in the project said in its statement: “Further technical evaluation will be undertaken to determine the optimum strategy for the Cobra 1A ST3 gas discovery.” It said the discovery represents the first successful test of the sub-thrust development in Papua New Guinea and has significant implications for further prospects.

Japan Energy is an oil refining unit of Nippon Mining Holdings Inc. Nippon Mining’s stock price closed up 3.78% at ¥494, marking a larger gain than the Nikkei average, which closed up 0.9%. (Reuters)