Australia Opens 2017 Offshore Round

The Australian government has announced the 2017 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release to promote petroleum exploration in Australia’s offshore waters. The acreage release provides explorers with new offshore areas the government has made available for either work program or cash bidding.

The 2017 offshore release (Credit: Department of industry, innovation and science) 

The 2017 acreage release comprises 21 areas located across eight sedimentary basins waters offshore of Northern Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, with 20 areas available for work program bidding and one area for cash bidding, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said. The areas are located in water depths of 25 to 4,200 metres and vary in size from 161 to 2,465 km² and also vary in level of existing geological knowledge. Round one closes October 19, 2017 while round two closes March 22, 2018. 

Also, four areas from round two of the 2016 acreage release have been re-released with bids closing October 19, 2017.

In addition to the 2017 acreage release, Geoscience Australia has released National Offshore Petroleum Information Management System (NOPIMS) 2017 which is an online data discovery and delivery system for all Australian offshore petroleum wells and seismic surveys acquired offshore.

Shardul Sharma