Australia Seeks Bids on 21 Offshore Areas

The Australian government announced May 15 its 2018 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release to promote petroleum exploration in Australia’s offshore waters.

The acreage release provides new offshore areas for either work program or cash bidding. “It enables industry to undertake longer term planning to support the ongoing investment in, and development of, Australia’s offshore petroleum exploration industry,” the government said.

The release comprises 21 areas located across six sedimentary basins offshore Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, and the Ashmore and Cartier Islands. Sixteen areas are available for work program bidding and five areas for cash bidding. The areas are in water depths of 15 to 4,534 metres, vary in size from 80 km² to 12,128 km² and also vary in level of existing geological knowledge. All areas are supported by pre-competitive geological and geophysical data and analysis undertaken by Geoscience Australia, the government said.

According to the government all release areas have been nominated by industry, assessed and considered by government, publicly consulted, and selected to offer the petroleum exploration industry a variety of investment opportunities. The government has also re-released seven areas from the 2017 release.

Map credit: Australian government; further info on the 2018 round is available here