Proceeds from the issue of 68 million shares at 25c each will be used to fund a 100km 2D seismic survey in petroleum prospecting licence 267 to delineate prospects for drilling and new leads as well as the drilling of a well in the same permit.

The offer, which closes on October 31, also includes the right to accept oversubscriptions to raise an additional $A3 million that will be used for an additional seismic survey in PPL 268.

Shares in the company are expected to list on November 14.

NGE's earlier $A50 million ($US43 million) initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange was cancelled when its cornerstone investors failed to secure the necessary funds before the offer closed.

NGE's seismic survey in PPL 267 is a follow up to the Yalis seismic survey, completed in 2006, which identified two promising leads.

The new survey aims to complete the geological model for the northern Paradise lead and Panakawa structure and to upgrade them to drillable status. The survey will use existing logging tracks to provide easy access for vehicles and limit the need for land clearing.

This will be followed by the drilling of an exploration well in April or May next year.

Oil seeps have been found within PPL 267 including one near Panakawa which flows five barrels per day of 35 degree API oil.

NGE managing director Jeremy Towner said the initial exploration well would target liquids in hopes of making a commercial find capable of producing between 1000-2000 barrels per day within four months of the discovery.

The company plans to drill an additional six wells over the next two to three years with funding from potential farm-in partners or other external funding, according to Towner.

These wells may target six prospects NGE has already identified including an appraisal of the Tarim-1 well in PPL 269 that was drilled in 1990 to test the Tarim surface anticline.

Tarim-1 flowed 14,000 cubic feet of gas per day during a drill stem test of the Toro interval, which was interpreted to contain 5.6m of net pay. The planned drill stem test of the Alene Member (9.6m of net pay) was abandoned when the tools became stuck after the Toro test.

Tarim has estimated in-place reserves of about 41 million barrels of oil and between 97-148 billion cubic feet of gas.

Other prospects include the Sepalosiphon, Thelasis, Thelymitra and Ridlegella structures in PPL 269 and the Lake Murray West target in PPL 266.

NGE's additional seismic survey of 150km in PPL 268 will link with a series of existing seismic surveys in the north of the licence. The survey will be used to complete the geological model of the Eulophia lead and assess the potential of the Calanthe lead.

The company's earlier $A50 million offering was cancelled when a cornerstone investor failed to secure the necessary funds before the offer closed.

NGR had originally planned to drill between three and six wells in the first half of 2008 with the funds from the offering.

The company spent two-and-a-half years piecing together 52,000 square kilometres in six onshore licences - PPLs 265 to 269 and PPL 277 further to the east.