In a company statement released Friday, Osborne said Timor Resources had awarded a tender that day to BGP Indonesia to conduct further onshore seismic surveys at the four well sites.

Oil and gas has not been explored in Timor-Leste for some 50 years.

Timor Resources exploration permits cover around 250,000 acres and are adjacent to several offshore fields where more than $32 billion of oil and gas has been produced since 2011.

Osborne said: “We recently completed reprocessing of the historical 2D seismic, which indicates there are deep anticlinal structures in the permits reinforcing the opportunity for significant target reservoirs.

In April 2017 Timor Resources signed a 50 per cent production-sharing contract with Timor-Leste’s National Authority of Petroleum and Minerals.

The signing represented the first time in more than 40 years that an independent company had secured such rights.