Papua New Guinea focused InterOil is set to boost its capital spending to take advantage of the global downturn in industry activity and speed up its upstream work.

The decision to increase spending follows the 8 June closing of a $70 million registered direct stock offering.

The Canadian company said it is currently inspecting a number of drilling rigs and intends to buy an extra drilling rig.

InterOil is also planning to acquire additional seismic data to delineate the Elk/Antelope structure and to prioritise a number of adjacent prospects in Papua New Guinea.