Australian government announces lease round

The Australian government’s annual Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release has been announced with 21 areas on offer.

The areas are across eight sedimentary basins in Commonwealth waters offshore of Northern Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the Ashmore and Cartier Islands. Twenty areas are available for work program bidding and one area for cash bidding.

The areas are in 25-4200m water depth and vary in size from 161-2465sq km 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.

Coinciding with the 2017 acreage, is the release of NOPIMS 2017 by Geoscience Australia. NOPIMS is an online data discovery and delivery system for all Australian offshore petroleum wells and seismic surveys acquired in Commonwealth waters.