Day: Session: Time: Session ID: Abstract A Hydrocarbon Exploration History of Papua T.H. Fraser Resource System Diagnostics INTRODUCTION The second largest island in the world, New Guinea is about 2,400 km long, and has an outline reminiscent of a bird, thus descriptions like the Birds Head, Birds Neck, Birds Body and Birds Tail have been used for years to identify parts of the island (Figure 1). Geologically, the entire island belongs to the mainly continental Australasian Plate which incorporates a northern fringe of recently accreted arc material derived from the Pacific Plate. Figure 1: Topographic map of the island of Papua, comprising part of the Republic of Indonesia, and also Papua New Guinea. Indonesian Papua or what was previously known as Irian Jaya occupies an area of about 420,000 km 2 , more than 1/5 of the Republic of Indonesia’s total land area, and it stretches over 1,200 km from east to west and 740 km from north to south (see Figure 2). Papua New Guinea (PNG) covers approximately 425,000 km 2 , and consists of the eastern half of the island together with other smaller islands. Both areas pose logistical nightmares for any exploration effort. PNG combines two colonial territories, the northern part was German New Guinea, captured by Australian forces during World War 1. Later this territory became the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, then a Trust Territory and then merged in 1949 with the original British New Guinea, later the Territory of Papua (1888) in the south of the island. These two Territories were administered by the Commonwealth of Australia until 1972 when the independent State of Papua New Guinea became self-governing and joined the British Commonwealth in 1975.